How can I see which computers/VPS hold my Market product activations?

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Hello everyone,

In April 2026 I purchased an EA with 10 activations. My Purchases page now shows "Activations left: 8 of 10", so 2 have been used. However, I don't remember on which machines they are tied to. I had to format my 2 windows 11 laptops and reinstalled MT5. Candidates are my Dell laptop, my Asus laptop and two VPS servers.

My questions:

1. Is there any way to see which computer or VPS each activation is linked to (hardware ID, date, IP)?
2. If I reinstall the EA on a computer that was already activated (same hardware, no major Windows feature update since), will it reuse the existing activation, or consume a new one?
3. Is there a file or log in the terminal data folder that shows whether a Market product was ever activated on that PC, even if MT5 has since been uninstalled?

Any advice is highly appreciated.
 
SimonUAE A:
My questions:

1. Is there any way to see which computer or VPS each activation is linked to (hardware ID, date, IP)?
2. If I reinstall the EA on a computer that was already activated (same hardware, no major Windows feature update since), will it reuse the existing activation, or consume a new one?
3. Is there a file or log in the terminal data folder that shows whether a Market product was ever activated on that PC, even if MT5 has since been uninstalled?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

1. Not. I think - it is impossible to see that.

2. Activations are not reused. Already used activations are not recovered.

3. I do not know ... you can try to check the logs.

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Besides, please note, that activation will be lost because of major Windows updates, hardware updates and different authorization to the Windows (as a regular user of Windows or as admin for example).
More in details - check summary post  and summary post  

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My personal experience: 
if I want to buy some product so I look at the seller: do I know him or not, and I look at his posts on the forum - because I want to buy something from well-known user ... why? because buying something in the Market is some kind of believing: do I believe/trust the seller or not.
And I never buy the product with small number of activations (because number of activations are related to the sellers, means: the seller is estimating the number) - because I have 3 computers and one VPS.

 
Sergey Golubev #:

1. Not. I think - it is impossible to see that.

2. Activations are not reused. Already used activations are not recovered.

3. I do not know ... you can try to check the logs.

-----------------------

Besides, please note, that activation will be lost because of major Windows updates, hardware updates and different authorization to the Windows (as a regular user of Windows or as admin for example).
More in details - check summary post  and summary post  

-----------------------

My personal experience: 
if I want to buy some product so I look at the seller: do I know him or not, and I look at his posts on the forum - because I want to buy something from well-known user ... why? because buying something in the Market is some kind of believing: do I believe/trust the seller or not.
And I never buy the product with small number of activations (because number of activations are related to the sellers, means: the seller is estimating the number) - because I have 3 computers and one VPS.

Thank you, Sergey, for your kind and detailed replies.

To answer your point: yes, I only buy from reputable vendors, after checking their track record and live results. I also make sure the EA uses no grid and no martingale.

Your comments raised two further questions:

1. Do you usually buy through the MQL5 Market, or directly from vendors' own websites, which often offer discounts and bundles?

2. Buying directly from vendor may have its advantages, but the MQL5 activation model seems to offer one big benefit. As I understand it, each activation is tied to a computer, not to a terminal. So with 10 activations, I might lose a few to major Windows updates, but if I install the EA on 10 VPSs, each running 3 MT5 terminals, I could legitimately run it on 30 MT5 terminals with only 10 activations. Isn't that a significant advantage?

Thank you again, and have a nice day.
 
SimonUAE A #:
1. Do you usually buy through the MQL5 Market, or directly from vendors' own websites, which often offer discounts and bundles?

2. Buying directly from vendor may have its advantages, but the MQL5 activation model seems to offer one big benefit. As I understand it, each activation is tied to a computer, not to a terminal. So with 10 activations, I might lose a few to major Windows updates, but if I install the EA on 10 VPSs, each running 3 MT5 terminals, I could legitimately run it on 30 MT5 terminals with only 10 activations. Isn't that a significant advantage?

Yes, I bought from MQL5 Market (directly from Metatrader) according to the following procedure:

How to buy, install, test and use a MT4 Expert Advisor
How to buy, install, test and use a MT5 Expert Advisor 

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Yes, the activation is per computer. But I try to buy from sellers who are promoting many activations - because I already had the situaion with the finished activations (and that is why I know about all the particularities from summary posts  and ):

 
Any other trader wants to comment on this: is it more worthy to purchase a 10 activations EA from MQL5 or from the vendor's website?
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