Redistribution

Virtual Serial Port Tools can be redistributed as part of another product providing the following conditions are met:

• A corresponding license with redistribution rights is obtained by a customer.
• VSPT installation package is not modified in any way and is still signed by a valid HHD Software Ltd. digital signature.

To facilitate simpler distribution, two separate redistributable packages are provided on the product download page. Redistributable installers support unattended installation and uninstallation.

Minimal Redistributable Package

This installation package is a stripped-down version of a full installer with the following components removed:

• Configuration Utility
• Command-Line Utility
• Remote Serial Ports Server Component
• TCP/IP Serial Ports Server Component
• Documentation
• API headers and definitions

That is, this package only installs virtual serial port device driver and in-process COM library that is used to control it.

Intermediate Redistributable Package

This installation package is a stripped-down version of a full installer with the following components removed:

• Configuration Utility
• Remote Serial Ports Server Component
• TCP/IP Serial Ports Server Component
• Documentation
• API headers and definitions

That is, this package only installs virtual serial port device driver, in-process COM library that is used to control it and a command-line utility.

Installer Command-Line

Unattended Installation

.\virtual-serial-port-tools-redist.exe -silent

Unattended Uninstallation

.\virtual-serial-port-tools-redist.exe -silent -u

A calling process must have “Install Driver” privilege and must be elevated. Installer returns an integer which is zero when successful, equals S_FALSE if successful, but restart is required, or otherwise should be interpreted as HRESULT error code.

License Installation

The library must be activated on the client computer after installation. The user is supposed to activate the library using the license file embedded in the product installer. The license activation is performed with a call to ISerialPortLibrary.installLicenseFile or ISerialPortLibrary.installLicenseInMemory methods. Command-line Utility's --install-license parameter may also be used to install license.

The following scenarios are supported:

• The library is activated by the product installer after installing VSPT redistributable package.
• The library is activated when the product is started for the first time.
• The library is activated each time the product is started.

Therefore, it is safe to activate the library multiple times.

Activation is per-user. If the VSPT is supposed to be used by multiple Windows users after installation, the product must activate the library for each Windows user.

Server Components Redistribution

If required, both Remote Serial Ports Server and TCP/IP Serial Ports Server components may be redistributed separately (without the need to install the full package). Both components are single executable files (ps_server.exe and psip_server.exe correspondingly) without any dependencies.

Servers support simple “Copy&Paste” style deployment. They can be launched from non-elevated command prompt (or PowerShell or Windows Terminal) window and configured using command-line parameters.

In addition, both servers can be configured to be run as Windows Services. In this case, their corresponding configuration utilities must be used to configure them.