We are currently running XP Pro SP3 32b and will probably continue to do so for quite a while. At some point (perhaps after the first service pack), I may want to explore Win7. The two options I see for doing that are either a VM or dual boot. Now, technically both of these options are still the same user/PC. Yet, I have the impression that Symantec’s activation system will see these as a separate installation of NIS.
So, will I need an additional seat for a VM or another bootable partition?
Thanks.
Hi Mark_Kratzer,
You can read this thread (please read the posts by the Symantec employee) on dual boot computers and licencing; it should be counted as one installation as long as you activate your Norton product only once:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=45902#M45902
Found the following post by a Symantec employee on VM - it looks like it takes an additional seat:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=Win7Beta&thread.id=1705
VM - virtual machine (probably with Sun's Virtual Box). Another interesting question is do you even need NIS installed in the VM in this situation? Since the VM lives within the host system which already has NIS installed. To what extent is the VM protected by the host's installation of NIS?
How do you only activate once in a dual boot situation? Since without activating, NIS will not be functional.
Mark_Kratzer wrote:
How do you only activate once in a dual boot situation? Since without activating, NIS will not be functional.
Lol, good questions ;-) We'll need a techie/dual-boot/VM-expert here ;-D
Mark_Kratzer wrote:VM - virtual machine (probably with Sun's Virtual Box). Another interesting question is do you even need NIS installed in the VM in this situation? Since the VM lives within the host system which already has NIS installed. To what extent is the VM protected by the host's installation of NIS?
How do you only activate once in a dual boot situation? Since without activating, NIS will not be functional.
Mark
Symantec see that as a 2 seat installation - one for Win 7 and one for the VM XP installation.
Yes, that's what the post (on the VM) by the Symantec employee LanaK says - it's counted as an additional seat.
Dual-boot: if you install NIS on both partitions (2 activations), then those will be counted as 2 licences (see GayathriT's post in the thread I posted above).
Hi Mark,
I did some snooping around online and from what I can tell you definitely need an AV program on both your host boot/partition and your vm boot/partition in order to stay secure.
VM's are not detected by your host partition (though windows 7 with xp vm already built in may be a special case). Therefore, if you install NIS 2010 on a regular copy of windows 7 it would just notice that you have an extra partition on your hard drive. Auto protect would only be monitoring your host partition because that is where your OS is currently running.
The only way for it to scan anything in the vm partition would be if you did a full system scan or if you made it so you can transfer files between your host and vm partitions. However, even in that case NIS would only treat your transfering of files as a set-up for file sharing and still would not use auto protect to monitor your vm.
Remember, computers are dumb. They only do and know what we tell them to. To your os, having a vm installed looks like you simply have another partition on your hard drive because it cannot detect the system files. Even if you find a third party program for creating vm's that will also tell your computer that your other partition is a vm NIS still will only be protecting the one you installed it on.
Hope this helps!
Pexley
Yaso_Kuuhl wrote:Yes, that's what the post (on the VM) by the Symantec employee LanaK says - it's counted as an additional seat.
Dual-boot: if you install NIS on both partitions (2 activations), then those will be counted as 2 licences (see GayathriT's post in the thread I posted above).
Message Edited by Yaso_Kuuhl on 09-26-2009 03:44 PM
Yaso -- I agree with that on VMs -- everyone at Norton seems clear on that.
But on dual boot I find GayathriT's two posts to contradict each other:
I have installed on dual boot (and pentaboot) machines but with more than one licence I can't actually determine easily how it is treated from looking in Norton Account since although in 2010 it gives more information I can't identify machines.
Hi Mark_Kratzer,
I went to Symantec Customer Support to inquire about the dual-boot installation. It seems that there's a confusion between "licence" and "activation".
What I was told, in a nutshell, was the following:
If you install NIS 2010 on a dual-boot computer with two different operating systems, you will have to activate NIS 2010 twice, but you will use up only one licence - because you're installing NIS 2010 on the same computer.
The support agent told me: "It makes two activations, but since it is on the same computer, there are no issues."
Huwyngr is right, GayathriT's posts contradict each other :-)
Thanks for exploring that but, alas, it is not unknown for Customer Support to give out incorrect information! And it is not unknown for organizations to be "economical with the truth" if they want users to believe something!
Frankly the only true source is "Suck it and See" .....
Certainly so far as I can tell with Microsoft WIndows Activation it does not distinguish between a dual installation of the same OS on the same computer since the hardware is the same but I suspect their alogorithm is more sophisticated than Norton's?
huwyngr:
It's quite a merry mess, isn't it? :-)
Yaso_Kuuhl wrote:huwyngr:
It's quite a merry mess, isn't it? :-)
You said it .....
I'm pretty sure that Tony W posted a message saying exactly the opposite on multibooting ......