Both computers open Tally at 10 in the morning. One works. The other does not. This page shows exactly what happens on the second PC, why it happens, and the official handover steps that let the licence move between desks legally.
You do not need to imagine this scene — it plays out in small offices every day. The billing PC opens Tally fine. The owners PC, using the same Silver licence over the network, refuses to start a licensed session. Nothing is broken. This page walks through the sequence technically: how the licence answers, the Educational Mode offer you must refuse, and the documented way the licence is handed over.
A TallyPrime licence is served by the machine where it is activated. When Tally starts on any PC, it asks that licence service: is a seat free? A Silver licence has exactly one seat. Tallys official licensing FAQ confirms the rule: only one user can access a Silver licence at a time in a LAN, and for another user to take it, all instances currently using it must be closed first.
So the second PC is not "unable to find the licence" — it finds it, and is told the seat is occupied. That is the licence working as designed, not a fault to repair.
When no licensed seat is available, Tally may offer to start in Educational Mode. This is the most dangerous screen in this whole story, because it looks like Tally opened fine. Educational Mode is a learning mode: Tally itself states that in this mode you can enter transactions only on selected dates. Real vouchers entered there are a compliance mess waiting to be found at filing time.
Rule for every office: if Tally opens in Educational Mode, stop. Do not enter a single real entry. Find out which PC is holding the licence, close it there properly, and then open Tally again in licensed mode.
When PC 2 is done, the reverse is the same: close Tally fully on PC 2, and PC 1 can use the licence again. One more honest note from Tallys documentation: on the same computer, a Silver licence can be used by multiple TallyPrime releases installed in different folders — that is about versions on one machine, not extra users.
The video above walks through what actually happens when one Tally licence meets two PCs, step by step, on screen.
▶️ Watch Full VideoFinding the licence and having a free seat are two different things. A Silver licence has one seat. The licence service on the activated machine reports that the seat is occupied by the first PC, so the second PC cannot start a licensed session until the first closes Tally completely.
No. Educational Mode is a learning mode and transactions there are restricted to selected dates. Real business entries made in it create wrong-date vouchers and filing problems. Close Tally on the PC holding the licence, then open your PC in licensed mode instead.
Not at the same time through the licence — viewing inside TallyPrime still uses the licence. For look-only needs, export or print the report from the working PC, or use Tallys browser-based report access where your TSS subscription offers it, rather than opening a second Tally session.