How long after the passing of the anniversary of my licensing Avast! 5 Free must I wait to be allowed to enter the new licence number? That date was 1 June 2010 and the licence expires on 1 August 2010.
Not sure i understand you…
after install you can use avast free for 30 days before you have to register, but you can register now, you don`t have to wait…
On-line registration is very simple and it’s the preferred method for all users of avast Free Antivirus 5.0 installed on a computer with standard Internet connectivity. To perform on-line registration follow these steps:
http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=459
Thanks for your response Pondus. It’s quite simple. I know how to obtain the new licence key. My question is when does the GUI present the option to enter the new licence key. I registered on 1 June 2009; 12½ months ago. Expiry is on 1 August 2010. At some point the GUI will allow me to enter the new licence key but when?
At the moment, the GUI does not allow a new licence key to be entered. All I can see is shown in the attached screenshot.
ahaaa…This is a guess…a week or two before…
Thanks Pondus. It seems logical to me that the GUI should display the option from the anniversary of the renewal but obviously Avast does not agree.
You’ll be advised 15 days before the end of the period 
First you had avast 4.8 back then and the registration period was 14 months not 12 months, so that accounts for the not being notified on the anniversary, e.g. 1 June 2010. When you updated to 5.0, that previous registration information/period would be carried forward to 5.0.
When two weeks from the current expiry date, you will start to get renewal/update notifications and the interface will change so you will see a renew/register now button and that is what you would use.
Why do you even put an expiration date on the free license? What purpose does it serve to make FREE users jump through hoops to keep using your product?
What hoops…? :
You install it, register it, use it…
After 1 year you renew your registration.
All for free, so where is the problem…??
asyn
it is for statistical purposes, having control on how many users of avast free
David mentioned some changes in the registration scheduling from ver 4 to ver 5 … in 4.8, typically you’d get a reminder about upcoming registry expiration quite early, typically 2 or 3 months ahead. Probably the most significant change to me, other than of course now being able to register on-line (though you can still go the email route if you choose), is that in 4.8 you could re-register at any time during the registration year and the new 14-month period would start immediately. Handy if you planned on being away from your computer for quite a while, like on vacation.
Ok, but I still can’t see the problem…!!
Even if one is on vacation a whole year, just update the registration online or via mail…
asyn
The vacation issue is what caused me to start this thread. Surely Avast could make the period 30 days at least. Also, I look after several systems for friends and relatives, not all close to where I live. The users are very ‘untechnical’ and so I need to carry out renewal of their registrations myself. The restriction is very inflexible and problematic.
I never understand this… Why do you need to pass through it, why doesn’t avast collect the information by itself?
When I’ve started years ago passed through my mind that, in the future, avast will start to be a shareware and they’re releasing it for free only for 1 year.
I guess they are interested in how many users they have at a given point in time, as downloading doesn’t mean installing it, installing doesn’t mean using it but registering/reregistering does indeed mean it’s beeing used…!
asyn
Update the virus definitions = being using (ok, not for the off line, but how many off line computers will have?).
That would be a possibility, if there were program ids or similar, but afaik there aren’t. (happy about that!)
And as most users are on dynamic IPs, it’s quite hard to follow/track…!
asyn
Track? Why? What can they track with the registration?
I could use the same email to register more than one computer, I do not give optional details while registering, so why?
Well, true, Tech…
I don’t know the answers to these questions, as I was also only guessing.
asyn