
Apply for your FREE
wysiwyg Student Edition!
At CAST, we understand starting out can be difficult.
Wysiwyg Educational software gives you the power to learn at your pace, in or out of the classroom.
As a student, you can apply for a FREE wysiwyg Design Student Edition or upgrade it to one of the paid options.
(i) Terms and conditions apply
Eligibility
- To qualify, students must be enrolled in a program at an approved university, college, post-secondary vocational or polytechnical school,
- License must be installed on a computer with regular internet connection enabled
- Upon registration and consequent annual renewals proof of student status must be supplied,
- One non-transferable license per applicant for personal non-commercial educational purposes only,
- wysiwyg Design Educational Edition is FREE. An upgrade to wysiwyg Perform 4 universes (2,048 channels) is available at 99 USD per year or 149 USD per year for wysiwyg Perform 8 universes (4,096 channels),
- Educational watermark shows on shaded view, renderings and printable plots,
- The license is valid for 365 days from the date of issuance.
Eligibility
- To qualify, students must be enrolled in a program at an approved university, college, post-secondary vocational or polytechnical school,
- Upon registration and consequent annual renewals proof of student status must be supplied,
- One non-transferable license per applicant for personal non-commercial educational purposes only,
- wysiwyg Design Educational Edition is FREE. An upgrade to wysiwyg Perform 4 universes (2,048 channels) is available at 99 USD per year or 149 USD per year for wysiwyg Perform 8 universes (4,096 channels),
- Educational watermark shows on shaded view, renderings and printable plots,
- The license is valid for 365 days from the date of issuance.
ONCE YOU GRADUATE
Once you graduate, we want to help you with your career by giving you the chance to upgrade your existing Student Edition of wysiwyg to a Professional version of wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease with a one-time discount of 50% off listed price.
To qualify, you must have completed a degree at a university, college, post-secondary vocational or polytechnical school. You will need to apply to convert your Student Edition to a Professional version of wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease version within 365 days of graduation; transcripts or a diploma showing degree completion and graduation date must be submitted with your application.
To purchase, please email students@cast-soft.com with a copy of your graduation certificate and transcript.
WYSIWYG EDUCATIONAL SCHEME BRINGS ITS BENEFITS
- Access to CAST online tutorials and webinar series
- Chance to enter an annual design competition and have their work showcased on the CAST website and win CAST swag
- Chance to enter the CAST internship scheme and work with the CAST team at a major industry trade show
- Attend publicly-scheduled courses run by CAST at a reduced cost
ONCE YOU GRADUATE
Once you graduate, we want to help you with your career by giving you the chance to upgrade your existing Student Edition of wysiwyg to a Professional version of wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease with a one-time discount of 50% off listed price.
To qualify, you must have completed a degree at a university, college, post-secondary vocational or polytechnical school. You will need to apply to convert your Student Edition to a Professional version of wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease version within 365 days of graduation; transcripts or a diploma showing degree completion and graduation date must be submitted with your application.
To purchase, please email students@cast-soft.com with a copy of your graduation certificate and transcript.
WYSIWYG EDUCATIONAL SCHEME BRINGS ITS BENEFITS
- Access to CAST online tutorials and webinar series
- Chance to enter an annual design competition and have their work showcased on the CAST website and win CAST swag
- Chance to enter the CAST internship scheme and work with the CAST team at a major industry trade show
- Attend publicly-scheduled courses run by CAST at a reduced cost

Your Education and Success
is What We Care About
Learn
Get hands-on experience that matches your ambitious creativity and stand out amongst the competition.
Graduate
After your unlimited use of wysiwyg while in school, you can continue to enjoy wysiwyg by upgrading
it to an unwatermarked, Professional license of either wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease with a 50% discount of RRP.
SHINE!
This is your time to shine! Join the industry with the same tools as the professionals
and bring on your A-game. This is show business after all, so make us proud!
Your Education and Success
is What We Care About
Learn
Get hands-on experience that matches your ambitious creativity and stand out amongst the competition.
Graduate
After your unlimited use of wysiwyg while in school, you can continue to enjoy wysiwyg by upgrading
it to a Pro and have an unwatermarked license of either wysiwyg Design or Perform Lease with a 50% discount of RRP.
SHINE!
This is your time to shine! Join the industry with the same tools as the professionals
and bring on your A-game. This is show business after all, so make us proud!
FAQ
Can my wysiwyg Educational Edition Design license be upgraded to a Perform license?
Yes! At any point while using your Free Design license, you can upgrade to access wysiwyg Perform. Simply navigate to this link to purchase your desired upgrade. Your Perform license will set to expire a year from the date of purchase.
Can my wysiwyg Educational Edition cloud license be transferred to a new/different machine?
wysiwyg Educational Edition is intended to be installed on only one computer. If you wish to run wysiwyg on a new computer, please run the HWID tool on the new computer that you would like to install wysiwyg on. However, instead of clicking ‘Submit’ on the bottom right, select the ‘Save’ option on the bottom left. It will generate a text document. Please email students@cast-soft.com with the document attached, indicating a device transfer request.
I have just finished installing wysiwyg Educational Edition on my machine, however I am unable to login and use the application.
There are a few potential scenarios depending on the error message received:
- Error message: No active license is associated with your account.
a) Please ensure that you have registered for an account via our Education Portal. Once successful, you will receive an approval confirmation email. If during the registration you have requested for a Perform license, please ensure that you have received a payment confirmation email. If you have yet to pay for your license, please proceed to this link. Note that we do offer a Free Design license option. If you changed your mind and decided that you no longer require a Perform license, please email students@cast-soft.com indicating above.b) Please ensure that you have followed the instructions as indicated here to submit your HWID file. This process must be completed and successful before you will be able to launch and login to wysiwyg Education Edition. If you experienced any issues or error message when submitting your HWID via the HWID Tool, please take a screenshot of the error message. When using the HWID Tool. Instead of clicking ‘Submit’ on the bottom right, select the ‘Save’ option on the bottom left. It will generate a text document. Please email students@cast-soft.com with the document attached. - Error message: Invalid email or password provided.
Please ensure that you are using the correct password for logging into wysiwyg. Your wysiwyg login password is automatically generated and sent to your registration email address. Please note that it is NOT your Educational Portal login password. If you did not receive a password via email, please contact students@cast-soft.com.
I am an existing user that was previously able to login and use wysiwyg Educational Edition, however I am no longer able to login and launch the application successfully.
Please consider: have you recently changed computers, modified, or reconfigured computer hardware components, reinstalled Windows or changed the computer’s device name?
If YES, please run the HWID Tool on your machine. However, instead of clicking ‘Submit’ on the bottom right, select the ‘Save’ option on the bottom left. It will generate a text document. Please email students@cast-soft.com with the document attached, indicating there has been a change in HWID and you are no longer able to login and launch wysiwyg.
If NO, please try the following steps:
1) Please right click the launcher of the wysiwyg and select “Run as administrator”.
2) Please ensure that all firewalls and computer security are either disabled or allowing wysiwyg through.
To check your firewall settings:
I. Ensure that wysiwyg is not running.
II. Open the Windows Firewall Control Panel.
III. Click the Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall “link” on the left.
IV. In the Allowed apps window that appears, scroll down until you find “WYSIWYG Application” in the list.
V. Ensure that the checkbox on the left, and both checkboxes on the right of “WYSIWYG Application” are checked, as per the screenshot below.
VI. Ensure the same for any and all other “WYSIWYG Application” entries in this list.
VII. Click OK at the bottom to close the Allowed apps window.

3. Please verify that the time for your machine is properly set.
The time can be set manually, or it can be set to sync with a time server by changing some settings in Windows 10 Settings > Time & Language > Date & time. We want to ensure that it is syncing with a time server. If it is set in the wrong time zone or manual, communication with the Cloud License server will fail and the application will exit immediately after the login screen.
4. Another potential cause that we have seen before is the Windows system language. In very rare and specific cases, if the Windows system language is not set to be in English (e.g., it is set to French), it may cause the issue described above.
If none of the steps above made a difference, please run the HWID Tool on your machine. However, instead of clicking ‘Submit’ on the bottom right, select the ‘Save’ option on the bottom left. It will generate a text document. Please email students@cast-soft.com with the document attached, indicating the troubleshooting steps you have attempted.

Get real expert advice
Have questions about wysiwyg?
Our vast community of lighting designers and experts can help answer all your questions.
Compare and share your notes in the wysiwyg forum, or get real-world tips and tricks of the trade in our online courses.