I currently have a single PC licence for NIS, with "no remaining activations". I originally purchased NIS 2007 a few years ago and had it upgraded free of charge to NIS 2009 last year (i.e. via an automatic download as part of the annual subscription). I shall soon be upgrading to NIS 2010 under the same arrangement.
So, if at some time in the future I scrap my existing pc and buy a new one, will I be able to reinstall NIS on that new machine under my existing licence, or will I have to buy a new licence as the version of NIS that I have is a single PC licence with no remaining activations? (I can see the potential here for paying twice unless I change to a new PC around the end of my licence year. Obviously, I could time it to replace at the end of the licence year, but what if I am forced to replace the pc part way through the year - e.g. if it fails and cannot be repaired economically).
Presumably the only time this wouldn't work is if I was unable to remove NIS from my existing computer - e.g. if it crashed so badly that it could not be recovered or repaired. But I guess in that case that the cost of an extra NIS licence for a new pc would be fairly small compared with the cost of the new pc itself!
I currently have a single PC licence for NIS, with "no remaining activations". I originally purchased NIS 2007 a few years ago and had it upgraded free of charge to NIS 2009 last year (i.e. via an automatic download as part of the annual subscription). I shall soon be upgrading to NIS 2010 under the same arrangement.
So, if at some time in the future I scrap my existing pc and buy a new one, will I be able to reinstall NIS on that new machine under my existing licence, or will I have to buy a new licence as the version of NIS that I have is a single PC licence with no remaining activations? (I can see the potential here for paying twice unless I change to a new PC around the end of my licence year. Obviously, I could time it to replace at the end of the licence year, but what if I am forced to replace the pc part way through the year - e.g. if it fails and cannot be repaired economically).
If your hard drive died a very thorough death, and NIS died along with it, then you would still be able to install NIS on your new computer without losing your licence. And, as mentioned before, if you ran into difficulties during activation, Symantec Customer Support would be able to help you out.
Message Edited by Yaso_Kuuhl on 11-22-2009 12:03 PM
Interesting ... how does that work then, as in that case I would not technically have "uninstalled" NIS to reset my number of available activations to "1"? Would Symantec Customer Support be the only option in that case?
Yes, Symantec Customer Service would be the only option if you exceeded the number of activations. They have the proper tools and access to customer information - which we volunteers over here in the forums obviously do not and cannot have There have been quite a few discussions on how exactly this whole activation procedure/number of activations issue works. What I have read in other threads is that you can install and uninstall your Norton product on the same hardware/hard drive up to a certain number of times (I think 4, but I am not sure) before you exceed the number of activations; but how exactly the Symantec servers know when a product has been uninstalled from a specific hard drive and installed on the same drive or on a new one is something only Symantec knows
Message Edited by Yaso_Kuuhl on 11-22-2009 12:23 PM
Interesting ... how does that work then, as in that case I would not technically have "uninstalled" NIS to reset my number of available activations to "1"? Would Symantec Customer Support be the only option in that case?
So far as we know when you uninstall NIS or any of the subscription based products it does not alter the central Norton database, or your Norton Account. That's why we say "if you have a problem then contact Norton Customer Support (and all the feedback we get indicates that online CHAT is the most efficient) '' since they do have access to the central data base and the tools to alter it.
My guess is that what you really have to avoid is:
You yourself using a single PC licence on more than one PC
You selling an old PC but leaving the Norton Product on it so that the new owner can continue to use it and download updates etc.
You wouldn't want to the second anyway since it would leave them with access to your Norton Account and so to all your keys -- the latest version of the Norton Account on line includes the ability to click on an entry and get the KEY as well as it showing how many PCs the licence is for and how many remain unused.
So in the second case you would want to uninstall the Norton product using the Norton Removal Tool to wipe out all traces OR to wipe the hard drive clean before you sell it (which would also get rid of your personal files but you should use one of the special wipe tools to ldo this).
And BTW -- you can upgrade to NIS 2010 now without waiting to renew your subscription and then use it for the balance of the old subscription.
There have been quite a few discussions on how exactly this whole activation procedure/number of activations issue works. What I have read in other threads is that you can install and uninstall your Norton product on the same hardware/hard drive up to a certain number of times (I think 4, but I am not sure) before you exceed the number of activations; but how exactly the Symantec servers know when a product has been uninstalled from a specific hard drive and installed on the same drive or on a new one is something only Symantec knows 