Upgrade to 6.50 - Frequently Asked Questions 

This page provides answers for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) involving an upgrade to Manifold System Release 6.50 from previous Manifold releases.   See the 6.50 highlights page  for more information on Release 6.50.

Must I uninstall 6.00 before installing the Upgrade to 6.50?  No.  Simply follow the instructions on the 6.50 CD for installing 6.50.  If there is a 6.00 installation on the computer the 6.50 installation will uninstall that automatically when installing 6.50.  If you have anything special stored in the 6.00 installation folders, back it up to a different folder before installing 6.50.

Must 6.00 be installed on a computer before installing the Upgrade to 6.50? No.  The Upgrade to 6.50 can install on a fresh computer that has not had Manifold previously installed.  However, if you have 6.00 installed on a different computer and are now installing 6.50 on a fresh computer you must uninstall every 6.00 license used to qualify for a 6.50 upgrade because any such 6.00 license has had its serial number revoked.  It's risky business running with a revoked serial number, since it is only a matter of time before the system detects a licensing violation for both the revoked 6.00 serial number as well as the derivative 6.50 serial number.

How do I purchase the Upgrade to 6.50?  Visit the Manifold Online Store and buy the Upgrade to 6.50 product.  When you go to Checkout, the Online Store will ask you to provide a valid 6.00 Manifold serial number for each Upgrade to 6.50 unit you have purchased.  If you have ordered 3 upgrades in your shopping cart, there will be 3 boxes into which you must provide three different 6.00 serial numbers.   You must have a valid 6.00 serial number for your upgrade purchase to be processed.   See the Lost Serial Numbers section below if you have lost your serial number.

Very Important:

• You must provide an original, valid Manifold System Release 6.00 or Release 6.00 SP1 serial number.
• The serial number version masked off with a series of X characters shown in Help - About is not the original serial number and will not work.  The masked version shown in Help - About is deliberately masked off with X characters to prevent your serial number from being stolen by people with physical access to your computer.  It shows enough characters so you can keep track of which of your serial numbers is installed on which machine (if you have more than one serial number) but to keep your serial number secure it does not show all of the serial number digits.  Use the original serial number sent to you.  It's best to Copy it from wherever you have stored a safe copy and Paste it into the serial number box in the checkout form.  Make sure when copying and pasting you copy and paste all the characters in the serial number.
• You must use a Manifold System serial number.  Attempting to use serial numbers issued for Business Tools, Surface Tools or the Option Pack will not work.
• You must use a Manifold 6.00 serial number.  Attempting to use a serial number issued for Manifold System 5.50 will not work.
• If you originally licensed Manifold System 5.50 or earlier edition and then upgraded to 6.00 using an Upgrade to 6.00 product, use the 6.00 serial number that was sent to you for your license.,
• If you originally licensed Manifold System 6.00 Professional Edition and then upgraded to Enterprise Edition, use the most recent, 6.00 Enterprise Edition serial number that was sent to you.
• If you had a Business Tools, Surface Tools or Option Pack license installed on your 6.00 machine, there is no need to upgrade these packages: installing an Upgrade to 6.50 will not only upgrade your main 6.00 license to 6.50, it will also upgrade Business Tools, Surface Tools and Option Pack to 6.50 on that machine.
• There is no need to order any Geocoding Data upgrades.  Geocoding data is issued whenever the Census Bureau completes a new release cycle, which will not happen until late 2005 or 2006. The current Geocoding Data DVD is the one issued in June, 2004.  If you have that Geocoding Data product your 6.50 installation will continue working with it.

Is the 6.50 Upgrade downloadable?  No. It must shipped. If you have multiple 6.00 licenses to upgrade you can upgrade them all from a single 6.50 CD if you have multiple 6.50 serial numbers.  If you would like to save on shipping costs, place one order for an Upgrade to 6.50 to be sent to you on CD.  Next, place a separate order for additional Upgrade to 6.50 units using the "License Only" shipping method for those additional upgrades.  The first upgrade will be sent on CD and the others will be sent as serial numbers only.

I don't have a 6.50 CD but ordered my Upgrade to 6.50 as a "License Only" shipment, and now I realize I need a CD.  What do I do?  Using the exact customer email address, order the Repeat Shipment product for $25 plus whatever shipping method you desire and send an email to sales@manifold.net asking that your Upgrade to 6.50 shipment be repeated, but this time sending a CD using the shipping method you selected.  Your order will be processed again as a CD shipment.

The Online Store seems different.  Has it changed?  Yes.  The new Manifold online store no longer requires registration with subsequent use of a login or password.  Simply provide whatever name and other information you wish to use for this order.  For purposes of ordering an upgrade, your right to do so is controlled exclusively by the ability to provide a valid 6.00 serial number.

When you order an upgrade (or any other product) the online store will display a confirmation page with an order number.   If you have an order number, you know your order was placed successfully.  If you do not see the confirmation page with an order number your order has not been placed.

Note that to enhance speed and security the online store does not use SSL: you will not see a padlocked icon, but you can confirm you are indeed connected to the authentic Manifold online store by checking the IP address of your connection: 69.17.46.170.  An easy way to check the connection for those desiring to do so is to open an IP-only, frameless version of the online store web connection by, in the entry page to the Online Store, right clicking onto the manifold.net logo image and choosing Open Link in New Window - you will then get a new "store only" window without frames that shows the IP address of the store in the URL. [Technical readers may be surprised to learn that, contrary to widely-accepted myth, SSL does not help, and can even harm, security.  See the Privacy and Security FAQ].

Does that mean anyone who has my serial number can order an upgrade and use up my serial number? Yes.  If someone has access to your serial number they can use it instead of you.  Each serial number can be used to order one upgrade.  Once a serial number has been used to order an upgrade, it cannot be used again to order another upgrade.

What happens to my 6.00 serial number after I use it to obtain an Upgrade to 6.50? The 6.00 serial number is revoked and can no longer be used to fetch Activation keys.  To avoid problems with license auto-cancellation, do not attempt to continue running a system using that 6.00 serial number.  For example, if you have an older machine running 6.00, after using that 6.00 serial number to upgrade to 6.50 do not continue to run 6.00 on that older machine while installing 6.50 on a newer machine using your new 6.50 serial number.   Note that if you have many machines running 6.00 and you plan to upgrade them all to 6.50, then you do not need to keep track of which 6.00 serial number was used to order 6.50 upgrades.  If you have ten 6.00 machines you can take the ten 6.00 serial numbers you have and order ten 6.50 upgrades, and then use the ten resulting 6.50 serial numbers to upgrade the ten machines you are running.  However, if you plan on upgrading some machines and not others, then keep track of which serial numbers were used to upgrade to 6.50 and use the new 6.50 serial numbers only on those machines.

I have been using 6.00 and since I bought an Upgrade to 6.50 my 6.00 serial number no longer works.  What's wrong? Nothing. When you use a 6.00 serial number to authorized acquisition of an Upgrade to 6.50 for that 6.00 serial number, you are replacing that 6.00 license with a 6.50 license.  When the new 6.50 serial number is issued for the upgrade, the old 6.00 serial number is revoked and can no longer be used for fetching Activation keys.  Use your new 6.50 serial number together with the 6.50 installation from your 6.50 CD.

I have 6.00 installed and when I try to upgrade it to 6.50 using the 6.50 serial number sent to me it doesn't work.  What's wrong? Nothing - 6.50 serial numbers can only work with a 6.50 installation made from a 6.50 CD. This makes sense if you think about it, since expecting a 6.50 serial number to somehow turn on 6.50 features within a 6.00 installation could not be done without time travel. The 6.00 installation you have was created months before 6.50 was created and published on CD, so there's nothing on your computer that's 6.50-ish which can be activated by a 6.50 serial number until you install Manifold 6.50 from a 6.50 CD. 

Are there different prices for upgrades depending on whether you have Professional or, say, Universal?  No.  The same Upgrade to 6.50 product, for the same price, will upgrade any 6.00 edition.  The only thing that matters is the serial number you provide to the Online Store when you order your upgrade.  If you provide a Universal 6.00 serial number, you will get an upgrade that upgrades 6.00 Universal to 6.50 Universal.  If you provide a Professional 6.00 serial number you will get an upgrade that upgrades 6.00 Professional to 6.50 Professional.

I placed my Upgrade to 6.50 order and did not receive a confirmation email.  Is that OK? Yes.  The online store no longer sends confirmation emails since these were confusing numerous customers who did not understand these were different than serial number emails or shipping notification emails.  Instead, if you see a Confirmation page and the store gives you an order number you know that your order has been accepted for processing.

Will 6.00 be continued for sale?  6.00 has been discontinued from sale on the Online Store.  Until the end of 2005, 6.00 will be available for sale to wire transfer and check prepaid customers ordering in quantities greater than 10 licenses at a time. This limited availability is intended to provide developers who are using Runtime licenses to transition to 6.50.

The web site says the upgrade to 6.50 is a "limited time offer"... when does it end?  The $50 upgrade offer is valid only until September 15, 2005. Until September 15, 2005, a Manifold 6.00 licensee may upgrade from 6.00 to 6.50 for only $50.  After September 15, 2005, the price of the 6.50 upgrade will be $150 until December 15, 2005, at which point the upgrade offer will be discontinued.  After December 15, 2005, there will be no discounted upgrade offers from 6.00 to 6.50.

Can I purchase the Upgrade to 6.50 if I do not have Manifold 6.00?  No.  You must be a Manifold 6.00 licensee to acquire the Upgrade to 6.50.

Is there a discounted upgrade from 4.50 or 5.00 or 5.50 to 6.50?  No.  There was a discounted upgrade from 5.50 to 6.00 that expired in 2004 and likewise there were discounted offers to upgrade from previous releases to the next.  A user who upgraded to 6.00 could now acquire the upgrade to 6.50 and still save considerable sums over the a new 6.50 license; however, if a user did not take advantage of the 5.50 to 6.00 upgrade when it was offered (or previous upgrades when they were offered) there is no 5.00 to 6.50 discounted upgrade.

I purchased Manifold 6.00 Professional recently.  Do I have to purchase the $50 Upgrade to 6.50 or will it be sent to me automatically?  That depends on when you licensed 6.00. All Manifold users who licensed 6.00 on or after June 1, 2005, will automatically be sent a 6.50 upgrade at no charge.  The 6.50 CD will be sent to the shipping address that was used for 6.00, and the 6.50 serial number will be sent to the email address used for your 6.00 serial number.

My address changed since June and I have not received the 6.50 upgrade.  What can I do?  If your address changed and you did not notify manifold.net, you should purchase an Upgrade to 6.50 for $50 via the Online Store to generate a new shipment.  Send an email to sales@manifold.net to notify Sales of your purchase and of your former and current address so that the 6.50 upgrade order can be matched to a qualifying 6.00 license and so your address record can be updated.

My address has not changed since April 7 and I have not received the 6.50 upgrade.  What can I do?  6.50 upgrades are shipped by Priority Mail in the United States, by Global Priority Mail to international addresses within those countries that participate in the Global Priority system and by First Class Mail to those countries that do not participate in the Global Priority system.  All three delivery methods are dependent upon the postal service in the US and (for international addresses) within the destination country.   Postal service is not guaranteed and can involve substantial delays.  If your 6.50 upgrade has not arrived within two weeks of the expected delivery date, contact sales@manifold.net to verify that it did ship.  If it still has not arrived within an additional week or two you may wish to consider it lost in transit and order the Upgrade to 6.50 on the Online Store for $50 to generate a new shipment. Note: Free upgrade shipments begin August 1, 2005 and are expected to take at least ten days for all shipments to be consigned to the postal service due to the large backlog.

I have purchased an Upgrade to 6.50 and have not yet received it.  When should I expect it?  See the question above for shipping information.  Shipments of 6.50 will began on July 25, 2005, with an enormous backlog of upgrade orders, which may take a week or two to fill.  If you ordered the 6.50 upgrade on a given day due to the large backlog it might not have shipped until a later date.  Priority mail takes about 3 business days within the US and Global Priority Mail takes about 5 to 7 days for international delivery if there are no delays in Customs.  First class mail can take weeks to deliver to some countries.   If your CD was intercepted by Customs there is no way to predict how long the delay will be.  When your order is processed you will receive a serial number email as well as a shipping email.  

If I order more than one upgrade to 6.50 do I have to pay a $5 shipping fee on each?  Yes, if you want a CD for each and if you place them as separate orders.  You can order some upgrades "License Only" to get a serial number sent without a CD being sent.

Can I order faster shipping than the Worldwide Upgrade shipping offer?  Yes.  When you order a 6.50 upgrade you can choose a Federal Express shipping option, which will be priced higher.

I have Manifold 6.00 Enterprise Edition.  Do I need to order a special Upgrade to 6.50?  No.  There is just one Upgrade to 6.50 that will automatically upgrade your existing 6.00 installation to the highest license level (Professional, Professional with Debugger or Enterprise) you have licensed based on the serial number you provide when you order the upgrade.  For example, if you originally licensed 6.00 Professional and then licensed a 6.00 upgrade to Debugger, your 6.50 upgrade will automatically configure itself for a 6.50 Professional with Debugger installation.

Is 6.50 different than 6.00 Enterprise Edition?  That question might imply a misunderstanding.  Just like Manifold 6.00 comes in four editions, 6.00 Professional, 6.00 Professional with Debugger,  6.00 Enterprise and 6.00 Universal Edition, Manifold 6.50 also comes in several editions: 6.50 Professional, 6.50 Professional with Debugger,  6.50 Enterprise Edition and 6.50 Universal Edition.

What about Runtime Editions?  Runtime licenses use exactly the same licensing procedure.  If you provide a runtime 6.00 serial number, you will get an upgrade to 6.50 runtime serial number.  No CDs are sent for runtime upgrades.

I have 6.00 Professional Edition and I would like to upgrade to 6.50 Enterprise Edition.  How do I accomplish that?  Visit the Online Store and order the Upgrade to 6.50 product.  When that order processes and you receive your new 6.50 serial number you can then order the Upgrade to 6.50 Enterprise product. When your 6.50 CD arrives, install the Upgrade to 6.50 first (which creates a 6.50 Professional installation) and then follow the Upgrade to 6.50 Enterprise instructions to upgrade your  new 6.50 Professional installation to 6.50 Enterprise.

I have a 6.00  Academic License - How do I upgrade that to 6.50?  Order the Upgrade to 6.50 for your institution using any of your 6.00 Academic serial numbers and then after you receive the CD send an email to sales@manifold.net asking for your 6.00 Academic License to be upgraded to 6.50.

I have a 5.00 or 4.50 Academic License - How do I upgrade that to 6.50? Order 6.50 Professional and then after you receive the CD send an email to sales@manifold.net asking for your 6.00 Academic License to be upgraded to 6.50.

I am having some navigation problems using the Online Store: when I go to checkout it pops me back to the product list (or other nav problems). What's going on?  The three most likely possibilities:  1) The store depends upon mild use of cookies to save people from circular loop navigation, as is possible with some browsers when hitting combinations of controls in the store and browser Back and Forward buttons. If you have cookies disabled or are using very atypical browser settings it cannot work right.  Using IE 5.5 or 6.0, set your cookie privacy settings to medium (the default) or low and then place the order.  2) It could also be that the session you were using to place orders has expired. If you do not do anything with the website for 20 minutes or so, the server assumes that you have ended the connection and discards all data it has received.  3) It could be that the Online Store  has been upgraded in the middle of your transaction. This is extremely rare since, while  upgrades are used to add various new features to the website, most of them do not require ending and restarting all sessions that are currently in process.  Nonetheless this is something that could happen.  If you wait a few minutes and try your transaction again it will go through OK if the problem was a store upgrade in the middle of your transaction.  Note that the Online Store is "fail safe" - if you don't see a Confirmation screen with an order number provided you can be sure you did not actually place an order.

Lost Serial Numbers

I have lost my 6.00 serial number.  Can manifold.net send me a new serial number?   No, but manifold.net may be able to recover your previous serial number for a fee.  If you can receive email at an email address that is an match to the email address to an order placed, you can use the Limited Key Recovery service in the Online Store to attempt to recover your lost serial number for a fee of $35. Do not order this product without first reading the Key Recovery Service Instructions - by ordering this product you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in that web page.

What if my email address has changed since I ordered 6.00 but I neglected to send in a change of address email, and I lost my 6.00 serial number?  If your email has changed since you ordered 6.00 and you neglected to inform manifold.net of the address change before June 1, 2005, then you cannot use the Limited Key Recovery service but may be able to utilize the Extended Key Recovery service for a fee of $75 via the Online Store.  Do not order this product without first reading the Key Recovery Service Instructions - by ordering this product you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in that web page.

Why do you charge a fee for key recovery?  Didn't you use to do that for free? - Anyone who possesses a Manifold serial number can use that serial number to get Activation keys for that serial number or to order a discounted Upgrade to 6.50 product.  Activation keys are valuable parts of the Manifold System license and the ability to save potentially hundreds of dollars in an upgrade to 6.50 (as is the case when upgrading an Enterprise or Universal license) is also valuable.  To protect these benefits for Manifold licensees, manifold.net has always taken measures to prevent unauthorized people from stealing your serial numbers.  However, the security measures used to protect against theft of serial numbers have changed with the introduction of 6.50.

The previous security system used by manifold.net used a higher degree of human involvement which provided a greater degree of flexibility in matters such as key recovery because it allowed certain informal methods by manifold.net personnel. A downside of that system's flexibility was the human involvement, which could potentially open the door to mistakes and other security threats. By requiring a high degree of human involvement that system also imposed numerous annoyances upon customers, such as the need to keep customer records updated with change of address notices in order to retain the ability to use technical support incidents.  Many users complained about the administrative burden that system imposed.

To provide better customer service the earlier security system was replaced with a new, higher security system on 25 July, 2005, for the 6.50 roll-out.  The new system also provides much higher security and, more importantly, allows users to key in their serial numbers directly for routine activities such as 6.50 upgrades and use of technical support incidents.  This eliminates the need to notify manifold.net of any changes in licensing details. The new system uses new methods to secure manifold.net serial numbers against theft which are so strong that for all purposes serial numbers and technical support tokens can now be directly utilized by Manifold licensees without the need for human intervention from manifold.net staff.  That makes it a lot easier for customers to get certain benefits impossible under the old system and to avoid annoyances inflicted by the old system.

Under the previous system the name and email address were determinative to identify a licensee, which caused numerous customer complaints in matters such as using technical support services or transferring a license from a reseller to a customer.  Under the new system, possession of the serial number is determinative of customer identity and rights to the license.  There is no need to notify manifold.net of license transfers to retain rights to technical support or upgrades.  This greatly simplifies usage of customer rights in numerous scenarios, such as large organizations, activities of resellers, contractors assisting in installation or configuration of licenses and so on.

However, like any good security system, the new system for preventing theft of Manifold serial numbers would not be any good if it could be easily broken.  It's just like investing in a good lock - if it really is a good lock and you lose the key to that lock you have serious trouble.  If it were easy to break open the lock without a key, or if it were easy to create a key copy without knowing what the original key looked like, then the lock would not be a very secure or reliable lock. Although it has always been important not to lose Manifold serial numbers, with the new security system it has become effectively impossible to recover 6.50 serial numbers except, with some effort, for the sole purpose of resending to identically the same email address used to acquire 6.50.

Because the old system had a high degree of human involvement no matter what the task, it often was possible with the old system to recover and resend a serial number for older Manifold editions without unusual labor involved.  For that reason, if someone requested a serial number recovery it was often the case that sales personnel could achieve a recovery with little additional effort and could arrange a resending of the serial number email at no charge. This is no longer possible with the new system, since the same enhanced security measures that enable direct customer utilization of serial numbers prevent the previous informal measures. 

With the new system, it is such a strong lock that it takes significant effort to even attempt a recovery.  If the serial number request is for identically the same email address that was used for the older Manifold serial number, it is almost always possible to recover it and resend it using a relatively constrained amount of human effort, hence the $35 fee for the Limited Key Recovery service.  If the email address has changed, then a much larger amount of human effort must be expended to recover and resend the serial number, hence the $75 fee for the Extended Key Recovery service.

If I lose my 6.50 serial number, can it be recovered?  Most likely, but only if the email address has not changed.  Using the Limited Key Recovery service for $35 a 6.50 serial number can be resent to the same email address used for the original 6.50 order.  Make sure you place your Limited Key Recovery service order using identically the same email address that was used for your 6.50 order.

What happens if I change my email address?  Then you should be especially careful not to lose your 6.50 serial number.  If you lose your 6.50 serial number and can no longer use the email address you used to order 6.50, then your serial number is permanently lost.

Can you recover Technical Support tokens?  No.  Technical Support tokens are not recoverable in any case.

Limited Time Upgrade to Manifold 6.50 Offer

Manifold 6.00 licensees interested in upgrading from 6.00 to 6.50 can do so for only $50, plus shipping, under the terms of a limited time upgrade offer.  Until September 15, 2005, a Manifold 6.00 licensee may upgrade from 6.00 to 6.50 for only $50.  After September 15, 2005, the price of the 6.50 upgrade will increase to $150 until December 15, 2005, at which point the upgrade offer will be discontinued.  The limited time upgrade offer requires a valid 6.00 serial number as well as Internet connectivity to connect to the Online Store to place an order via credit card or to complete a purchase process if paying by PO, wire transfer or prepaid check.

Manifold System Release 6.50 Free Upgrades 

The next major update to Manifold System, Release 6.50, began shipping during the week of July 25, 2005.  Release 6.50 includes several major system upgrades and hundreds of minor improvements.  All 6.00 licensees who acquired their licenses on or after June 1, 2005, will automatically be sent a 6.50 license at no charge.  All 6.00 licensees who acquired their licenses before June 1, 2005, may utilize the limited time upgrade offer to upgrade to Release 6.50 for $50 (plus $5 shipping anywhere in the world). 

Place your order today for 6.50 upgrades on the Manifold Online Store.