Abstract: In various embodiments, a user may, via a processing device, indicate a desire to purchase a feature of an installed software product. A purchase request may be sent to an e-commerce server, or other server. The purchase request may be validated and information concerning the software product, the feature of the software product, and the processing device may be stored. Enabling information may be sent to the processing device to enable the feature of the software product. In some embodiments, the user may request a trial of a feature of a software product before purchasing the feature. In other embodiments, the user may deactivate a purchased feature of a software product on one processing device and may activate the purchased feature of the software product on a different processing device.

Abstract: In an embodiment, environmental functionality of the system software may be changed by altering guarded system data which may affect behavior of the system software. A user may provide state change information for altering a state of the system software, which may thereby alter the environmental functionality of the system software. In some implementations, the state change information may include a product key or any alternative activation/identification datum. The guarded system data may be altered based on the state change information. Upon startup or after detecting altered guarded system data, the system software may set configuration parameters, based on the altered guarded system data or a detected hardware configuration, to enable a particular environmental functionality of the system software.