MagicJack/Support Resources/How-To/MJ Without Dongle

Windows edit

It is possible to run the soft-phone without the USB device (dongle). However, it is not perfect. See the warnings below.

Find your mjusbsp directory using the following command from a DOS (command) window:

dir mjusbsp /s

This location will be used in the steps below.

Plug in the magicJack USB device.
Start MagicJack if it didn't start automatically. Wait until it is "Ready to call."
Go to Windows Task Manager (alt-ctrl-delete to access it.).
- Kill the magicjack.exe process.
- If present, kill the mjsetup.exe process.
Copy the "magicJack" folder from the MagicJack flash drive to a drive on your computer.
- For this example we will assume you copied to "C:\magicJack\".
If you don't already have a shortcut on your desktop to the magicJackLoader.exe, make one now. This program is found in your mjusbsp directory, which was located in the preparation step above.
Right-click on the shortcut, click Properties.
Replace the "Target" field with:
"{drive:\path_to_mjusbsp}\magicJack.exe" /foreground /scf _magicJackPersonalDataRoot "C:\magicJack"
- Notice the use of "magicJack.exe" instead of "magicJackLoader.exe"
Put {drive:\path_to_mjusbsp}\mjusbsp in the "Start in" field.
Go to Start->Run, type "msconfig", go to the Startup tab and disable "cdloader2".
With the USB device still installed, run MagicJack using the shortcut you created (or edited).
After it starts, and is "ready to call," end MagicJack by going into Task Manager and killing the magicjack.exe process.
Safely remove the USB device.

You should now be able to start MagicJack using the shortcut you created (or edited). It should start fine and be ready to call.

To end MagicJack without shutting down Windows, see How-To: Exit Softphone.
To start MagicJack with high priority, see How-To: Automate Process Priority. It is just a change to the shortcut's "Target" field. (However, you should first get "Dongleless" working as descibed above, before proceeding to something more exotic.). Setting MagicJack's process priority to High can be useful to fix choppy, garbled voice.

Be aware of the following:

911 address information does not display on the softphone. It is not known (at the time of this writing) whether that means your 911 service will work.
When exiting MagicJack the normal way (safely removing the USB device), it appears that the softphone communicates something to the server indicating its changed status. Running dongle-less may affect this. See the FAQ answer: Can I shut down my computer without removing the USB Device?
MagicJack upgrades may not work. You may have to run MagicJack with the USB device, with the original shortcut. Let the upgrade occur, and then follow the instructions above again to get the updated files copied to your hard disk.
If you have any errors displayed by the soft-phone, it is highly encouraged that the first thing you do is run MagicJack with the USB device, with the original shortcut.

Credits: The above information was obtained from the following two posts: