1. A computer-implemented method for metering use of software, the method comprising: establishing an application usage account for a user, the application usage account having an account balance; receiving, from a third-party software publisher, an unmodified executable for a third-party application of the third-party software publisher; receiving configuration information specifying runtime properties of the third-party application, the specified runtime properties comprising a runtime behavior of the third-party application in response to an absence of a network connection of the third-party application with a remote metering server; producing an encrypted executable by encrypting the unmodified executable; generating a secure application package for distributing the third-party application, the secure application package comprising: the encrypted executable, the received configuration information, and a loader separate from the encrypted executable that when executed on a computing device: allocates, within memory of the computing device, a template process with an empty code segment; decrypts the encrypted executable into the empty code segment within the memory of the computing device, without storing the decrypted executable to durable storage of the computing device; and launches a shell application for controlling metering of the third-party application at runtime; providing to a remote computing device of the user, the secure application package and the shell application; receiving from the shell application executing on the remote computing device an authentication request including credentials of the application usage account of the user; verifying the received credentials; responsive to verifying the received credentials, providing an indication to the shell application that it may enable use of the third-party application on the remote computing device by decrypting the encrypted executable; receiving, at periodic intervals from the shell application executing on the remote computing device and controlling execution of the third-party application on the remote computing device using the configuration information of the secure application package, an indication of usage time of the third-party application by the user; and responsive to receiving the indications of usage time from the shell application, tracking time of use of the third-party application and deducting a corresponding amount from the account balance of the user based on the time of use.