For freelance translators, using cracked software is professional suicide. If a client audits your setup or if you are sued by RWS (the current owners of Trados), the legal fees will dwarf the cost of the license.
For those with a valid perpetual license who are attempting a legitimate activation on a supported legacy environment, the standard steps were: Online Activation : Paste the activation code from your RWS account directly into the software. Offline Activation sdl trados studio 2014 activation code 151 better
Simply paste your code into the field. The software communicates with the license server to validate your seat. For freelance translators