[Tip] Start AC Faster - Change WIBU Parameters

[Karl Ottenstein]

[This is an edited copy of an October 14 post I made to the old forum.]

The sometimes considerable delay while ArchiCAD is starting is actually the WIBU protection key driver searching all ports for the key. You can change things so that only the proper port is searched, making startup considerably faster!

Windows (XP) instructions here - perhaps a Mac user can describe how to access the control panel there:

0. Exit ArchiCAD if open.

1. From the Control Panel, open WIBU-KEY.

2. Switch to the "Setup" tab.

3. Click on each supported port on the left and clear the check mark on the right under Port Setting that says "Enabled (port accessed by WIBU-KEY driver)"...except for the port that your key is plugged into. You may also use shift-click to select and modify all of the other ports at once. For most of us (7.0 and above), that would be the USB port as most of us now have USB keys. Click OK.

NOTE: be careful since a mistake at step 4 (disabling all ports for example, or leaving only the wrong ports enabled) would prevent you from running the control panel again to re-enable the wibu key port ... but this can be done manually from the registry (or the software can be re-installed).

The wibu driver searches all of the ports in the list ... in order. (For me, these show as LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, PcCard1...PcCard6, and finally USB.) So, with USB at the bottom, there was a long delay until the USB key was discovered each time ArchiCAD started (or the WIBU-KEY control item was started). It is now nearly instantaneous.


I discovered this by accident because I was completely unable to start ArchiCAD recently... nor could I run the WIBU-KEY control panel item. I got a message that the driver was searching on LPT1 and things locked up. I had installed a new printer driver that somehow must have conflicted with the WIBU driver's search of the LPT port. I was not able to do the above steps, but manually edited registry entries to force wibu to ignore all ports except USB and things worked again. (If anyone gets similarly locked up, let me know and I'll send or post the registry trick.)

So a disaster and 2 wasted hours resulted in a pleasant ending.

NOTE: this tip applies to individual license keys. I don't have access to a network key to know if there is a similar trick there.

The screen shot below shows the WIBU 3.31 driver control panel screen (click to view full-size).

Karl