The overriding tactical usage driving case explained here necessitates that we improve the current process of running WSV3 on a new PC.

WSV3 2025 first-ever new PC install/load-up should be under 15 seconds from the moment it is downloaded with a reasonable internet connection; on a good SSD, the map should display within 7 seconds of bypassing the Windows random internet download file warning to run the EXE.

WSV3 2025 should have a "tactical installerless self-contained ZIP file" download option from where it can be run immediately, even from a thumb drive.

There need to be two folders finally enforcing correct separation between cross-user static data (like terrain/mapping data download cache) and per-user settings.

The per-user settings folder needs to be lightweight, portable, clear, and straightforward.

The first-generation product mixes gigabytes of static mapping data and hundreds of megabytes of temporary weather data cache data with user config/settings in the AppData folder.

WSV3 2025 must have a robust dependency and resource management system allow it to run without administration permissions and launch within hundreds of milliseconds on consumer SSDs.

Both the executable and download file sizes need to be impressively lean; less than 20mb if possible.

The licensing needs to drop all dependence upon:

The existence of client-side trial mechanism protection that can be hacked;
(Related) Not being inside a VM/Hypervisor environment, which has become an absolute disaster;
Traditional activation/deactivation

As requested by many, I intend to bring highly generous floating licensing to WSV3 2025 and charge only for data subscriptions. Due to the piracy situation explained on the current operational forums, going forward, we won't have a business under the old model. Thankfully, the old model is a tremendous hassle anyways, with manual BIOS settings needing to be changed even just to run WSV3, and a lockout of all Mac usage through Parallels. Further, a user moving to another one of their own PCs currently requires them to remember to deactivate on the old or to email me. These conditions are unacceptable going forward for the mission-critical tactical requirements of WSV3 2025.

Licenses should be sold per concurrent floating PC; users will sign-in once, and this authentication string will be saved to the same place all settings are saved (one small folder able to be ZIP'd and transferred easily) for seamless re-access and cross-device access, enforcing only a non-concurrency condition, with an aggressive re-check rate of 120-seconds, to support faced-paced tactical field deployments where one floating license must be available on a storm chasing laptop 120 seconds after it last phoned-home on the same user's home desktop.

The user settings directory should not be fixed to %APPDATA%/WSV3; a command line parameter to specify it could enable WSV3 to be entirely self-contained on a portable hard drive if said directory for settings resided next to the executable and along with resource files. Or, the installer could install WSV3 to the AppData directory with different version folders containing different executable versions and their associated user settings, with seamless upgrade and recovery from/to past versions. Google Chrome in fact uses this strategy, running from AppData and not installing to traditional Program Files.

The floating licensing everyone has asked for also solves the piracy, since the product will not download any data otherwise.

If necessary to support the foregoing mission-critical tactical requirements, it is acceptable for evaluation functionality to be limited, and for a means-tested refund process to be introduced if the user can show the advertised data services did not work for a long enough period of the subscription. However, viable secure evaluation options include showing working but delayed, non-realtime data on all major program layers along with heavily watermarked usage. The application can no longer rely on traditional Windows shareware/free trial mechanisms where the EXE is a sitting duck for piracy, exposing the entire operational embedded data service feed without per-request authentication.

The base application should be free and uncrackable because there is nothing to crack, only showing base mapping data, and lacking real-time data, for which the subscription is necessary.

Multiple tiers of data subscriptions should be offered; special redundant datasources and other benefits can be offered exclusively to industry for higher-priced based data subscriptions (e.g., base 2-concurrent-PC commercial licenses vs base 1-concurrent-PC personal licenses), and quality embedded data services should be offered to users at fair, low prices:

The primary flagship personal-use tier should still be in the ballpark of $25/month despite offering astronomically more value and data service than the current $25/month product;
The personal-use data subscription tiers should range as low as $10-$15/month to upwards of $80/month for extremely light "home edition" usage and ultra-data-enriched extreme-bandwidth paid analyst specialized feeds respectively, but while keeping an incredibly widened margin of value on the $20-$30/month primary tier
All optional unitary data add-ons should be replaced by the simplicity of tiers
The primary $20-$30/month flagship tier comparable to WSV3 Professional V5.9 should include real-time, full-featured GLM lightning data out of the box and not for an additional subscription

Finally, the ultra-heavy expensive analyst-level $80+/month tier should be made available on an additional one-time-payment "short term use pass" basis in keeping with the variable nature of need for specialized, heavy meteorological post-processed datasets with regards to special events and transient storm situations.

One-month subscriptions are not optimal in relation to the period of time during which a vast majority of users would derive value from extremely high density post-processed proprietary meteorological streaming imagery/embedded data services. Therefore, even the very expensive data subscription ultra-tier should be available at far reduced one-time subscriptionless prices for, e.g., 6 hour, 12 hour, 48 hour, and/or 96 hour, periods, with zero recurring fees.

Finally, the client-side executable dependencies should be reduced as much as possible to maximize system compatibility and fast-loading efficiency. I can happily declare that I have already ridded WSV3.exe 2025 development edition's dependence on all sibling DLL files except for one small, efficient, compact WSV3.dll I myself generate for inclusion in the new executable's small resource footprint of PNGs, compiled D3D11 shader objects, and fonts. Furthermore, I have removed all static linking and made the EXE link even to WSV3.dll only dynamically, and not as a dependency for any mission-critical weather data rendering (presently, only necessary for one-time ingestion of shapefile data, but likely necessary soon for the reimplementation of filled polygons for map objects like watch/warning polygons).

Still, I demand the WSV3.exe will be able to run by itself without any static linking DLL dependencies beyond that which should be already guaranteed to exist within Win10/Win11 system directories, further minimizing the set of factors under which running WSV3.exe would do anything other than "just work".

Although the windowing/flexible framing system lessens the need, the single-instance restriction should be removed, and multiple instances of WSV3.exe should ideally be supported without file IO conflicts as a further possible extension of the windowing system, adding another level of user interface grouping and indirection possibly useful for multi-monitor scenarios.