"updating license will expire soon" even after reregistration

For the last several days I had been getting the popup message “updating license will expire soon.” So last night I reregistered Avast 4.7, i.e., I chose the option on the Avast Web site to register the program that I already had but was expiring. After I did that, Avast emailed me a new registry key number, which I copied and pasted into the field that asks for my registry key, i.e., I followed the directions in the email exactly, starting with step 5 just as it said I should do.

This morning I turned on my computer and got a popup message from Avast, “updating license will expire soon.” What’s going on? I shouldn’t see that popup for another year because I updated last night, right?

Beth

Are you sure its a valid key ?

Al968

What does the About box say about your license?
Did you enter the key from an administrator account?

First, I right-clicked the blue icon representing the resident protection in the system tray.
Second, I choose “About avast!”
Third, I pressed the “License key” button in the lower right corner.
Fourth, I pasted the license key that was emailed to me into presented text dialog.
Fifth, I pressed OK in “License Key,” then pressed OK again in “About.”

Yet, today the registration key in “About avast” is the old registration key, not the key that I pasted.

Something’s wrong. Should I try it again?

Beth

What user account did you do this from?

Your question made me realize that the person who first installed this on my computer (as I said, someone else did when I needed help troubleshooting problems I was having with my computer) may have put it in his name, not mine.

Where can I see if he did this? I checked “About” but can’t find that info. That’s probably the problem. So what should I do?

Beth

Beth, it’s not a problem of a name but the type of user of the computer: is it an account with Administration rights or it is a common user.
Control Panel > User accounts should show you if you are at a computer administrator account.

No, this is a home computer, and I’m the only person who has anything to do with it, no administrator rights.

Beth

No Beth, if you have Windows XP and you’re the only user that can logon, you have administrator rights…
If you go Control Panel > User accounts what do you see?

You can post a screenshot of it.
To know how to post a screenshot, see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=8982.0
You can use WinSnap to get a screenshot (http://www.ntwind.com/software/winsnap.html).

I’m running Windows 98. In the Windows 98 Control Panel, there is no User Accounts, but there is Users. However, this would only be used if you wanted to give rights to more than one user, which I never did. Therefore, I’ve never used Users, and it’s not even set up.

I’m sorry I didn’t specify right from the start that I’m running Windows 98. I did in a previous thread I started yesterday, so that made me forget.

Beth

Sorry, sorry… in Windows 98 the history is completely different… no admin account, only common users…

Which is your avast version? 4.7.892 ?
Right click the ‘a’ blue icon and choose About…

Yes, 4.7.892

Beth

In cutting and pasting the registration key ensure you don’t copy a space at the end of the key this would make it invalid.

Yet, today the registration key in "About avast" is the old registration key, not the key that I pasted.

Something’s wrong. Should I try it again?

The number that you see in the about box isn’t the full key part of it is hidden so it may well appear that it is the same key. The format is 18-8 and in the about avast you only see the first 18 characters not the full number. I have had several registration keys and the last two have the same first 18 characters, so in the about avast box it would appear that they are the same when they aren’t.

When you enter the key and click OK the key should be validated and if it were invalid, you would get an invalid key error, I assume you aren’t getting that ?

Igor asked “What does the About box say about your license?”
I think the most relevant now you have told us what version you are using is the Registration Key, Updates expiration date ?

I don’t think I did that.

The number I was replacing began with W3; the new number begins with W4.

I did get a message that the operation completed successfully.

I just did it over again, and I think it worked this time.

Thanks,
Beth

Your welcome.

If it truly succeeded you should see the Updates expiration (that I asked about ;D) should have changed to a point roughly 14 months in the future ?

OH NO! Yesterday the updated registration key was in “About.” Today it’s back to the old key! And the updates expiration date is February 1, 2007!

How could this be if I got a “completed sucessfully” message after I gave it the new key yesterday? What’s going on?

Beth

Beth… something is wrong. Would you mind do this?

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
  4. Boot.
  5. Install again the last 4.7.942 version at default path.
  6. Boot.

OK, I just followed these steps, then registered. When I get a registration key emailed to me, I’ll insert it and see how things look.

As I said, I’m using Windows 98 because I can’t afford to upgrade the operating system. And I really do need to upgrade ASAP. I always have trouble shutting down the computer. Whatever is causing this trouble may be the reason I was having trouble with Avast, although I doubt it.

Beth

Indeed, things could be related… because a bad shutdown could avoid things to be saved in Windows Registry and errors could appear…

Hello guys,
i’ve been having this notification issue for the past 3 weeks. I originally purchased SMS2003 server edition with 25 pro licenses in Nov. 2005. I renewed our license this past November. I noticed that the new license I received was identical to the 2005 license file. I’ve installed the latest pro version downloaded from the website on a brand new workstation and I still received the license message. We only have about 20 workstations but I purchased a license for 25 this past November.

Please help, when I check the license file in the tray icon, it expires Feb. 1st.
rommel

:frowning: