I can't believe I'm only the second poster. It's a bit disappointing to see, especially when the only other post is a request for help that just trails off...

For my part I'm wondering: where is the obfuscation, where is the API? And why am I setting up a web-site?

It's very unclear (maybe only to me) what this thing does exactly.

Please reply, you'd be the first :-)

This project is meant to provide the shareware developer a number of functions that they may find useful.  It is a set of forms and helper classes that can be reference and consumed directly from within a desktop application written in either C# or VB.  Because the SSK collects information for activation, registration, errors, and feedback using a web service adatabase is required to collect this information.  That's where the website come in, it gives you a view into the data sent from your application to the hosted database.

Here is a list of the classes that are provided:

The source code may be downloaded here:  http://sharewarestarterkit.com/Download/tabid/2655/Default.aspx

OK, is it supposed to be compatible with Express versions of VS? I don't have that sort of thing (web services, IIS, etc) set up at, so either way (since of course I can use the company's full versions if I go ahead) it seems that I'm being thrown into setting up the web end of things and learning about the customisation options before I can look at the technical side of things.

Anyway, I was hoping for something that didn't require me to run the money myself so it seems this isn't really a suitable avenue. Thanks for the help.

Yes, that's why the website exists. The web services and database are hosted there along with a web interface to view the data.  All you need to do is create an account, then configure the client portion with your developer token so it knows who you are.  There shouldn't be any IIS setup required on your end.  Check out the instructions below.

Steps to use the Shareware Starter Kit™ Service

The Shareware Starter Kit™ Service is a free service provided for you the developer! It may be used to develop and test your application without deploying the web service portion of the project. Right now the site is in Beta, so the service is not recommended for production use but may be used freely for development and testing.

In order to use the Shareware Starter Kit™ Web Service and development website follow these steps:

• Create an account(Link to account creation).
• Confirm your email address.
• Receive your developer token in email and configure the client libraries with the developer token. The token is configurable in the settings of the Client project. See the documentation for configuring your shareware application to Configure Your Token.
• Configure the Client project web service URL to point to the web service
• If you have changed the name of your product in the Client project configuration settings, please visit the Product Configuration page and update your product name and licensing levels as necessary.
• Submit some test data and view it online!