I am trying to activate the free version of Mercury, but the Software Activation Tool says “A valid activation has been detected…”

This is due to having previously activated the software with a 36 character key. There are two options for resolving this:

Delete the ApplicationServices.ini file typically located in:

• Windows: "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\CCDC"
• Linux: "~/.config/CCDC"
• macOS: "~/Library/Preferences/CCDC"

Then restart the Software Activation tool, click on the Activate CSD-Community tab and click Activate

Alternatively, you can try activating the software from the command line.

On Windows, open a command prompt in the directory where the software activation tool is (usually %USERPROFILE%\CCDC\ccdc-utilities\software-activation) and type

ccdc_activator -c

On Linux and MacOS the command is the same but the location of the activation tool is different.