A licence is needed before a database can be opened. The licence is registered once per device and is shared with the other Invantive products there.
The licence is checked the first moment a database is opened, not at start-up. The product therefore always starts; without a valid licence the editor stays read-only, "Execute" and "Execute All" stay unavailable and the status bar reports that there is no valid licence.
## Register a Licence
![[20260806-qtm-license.png]]
The licence window opens by itself as soon as a licence is needed. To register a licence:
- Choose "Log in" on the toolbar. The licence window opens when the device holds no valid licence yet.
- Choose one of "Use free license", "Use trial license" and "Use Public Data license" to fetch a licence, or paste a licence key received from Invantive into the field under "License Key". The button "Paste license key from clipboard" takes the key from the clipboard and applies it in one action.
- Read the licence agreement under "License Agreement". The agreement is available in English and in Dutch.
- Tick "I have read the license agreement and agree to it.".
- Choose "Apply".
The licence agreement has to be accepted for every one of the four routes; without the tick the licence is refused and the window states that the agreement has not been accepted.
"License Details" shows the licence currently registered on the device.
## Licence Key on Start-up
A licence key can also be supplied when the product is started, which avoids the licence window on a device that is being set up unattended. See [[Invantive Query Tool Multi-Platform/Command Line Arguments|Command Line Arguments]].