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Thread ID: 41064 2003-12-28 19:52:00 Reinstalling Windows - what happens to Norton? win95a (4860) Press F1
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203951 2003-12-28 19:52:00 After two years of constant daily use my home PC (WinME) has been increasingly getting stroppy during startup (pausing / freezing).

I'd like to try clearing the disk & reinstalling windows from scratch, but aside from the aprehension over dowloading all the necessary updates again over my 56k modem I am unsure what will happen to my Norton Anti-virus subscription.

Norton originally came bundled with the OEM and pre-installed - does anyone know if/how the subscription details will be detected and resumed after re-install?

cheers, & Mery Christmass.
win95a (4860)
203952 2003-12-28 20:06:00 The subscription starts from the day you install Norton. So if you format and reinstall Norton, then the subscription starts on that day.

Mike.
Mike (15)
203953 2003-12-28 20:08:00 It should all sort itself out. I had Nortons 2002 OEM which came with a motherboard I had, and what seemed to happen was when I reformatted, it actually "reset" my subscription so that I was back to the 90 days free subscription, even though I'd used it for much longer than that prior to the format.

If you've paid for the subscription, you may need to write down your subscription info and re-enter it when you reinstall, so that the update site will know who you are.
somebody (208)
203954 2003-12-28 22:19:00 Thanks for that. win95a (4860)
203955 2003-12-28 22:21:00 Thanks - encouranging to know I wont loose it all and have to go out and buy a retail version. win95a (4860)
203956 2003-12-28 22:35:00 > I had Nortons 2002 OEM which came with a motherboard I had, and what seemed to happen was when I reformatted, it actually "reset" my subscription so that I was back to the 90 days free subscription, even though I'd used it for much longer than that prior to the format .

How long ago did you do that? It was reported fairly recently on this forum that people could no longer do that as Symantec had wised up and changed things .

If a susbscription is still current it would obviously still carry on until it expired but from what I have read I would be cautious about expecting it to start from the beginning after a format . And I would be very wary about having updates continue if the subs has already expired .

Want to be our guinea pig win95a? :D
Susan B (19)
203957 2003-12-28 22:47:00 > > I had Nortons 2002 OEM which came with a
> motherboard I had, and what seemed to happen was when
> I reformatted, it actually "reset" my subscription so
> that I was back to the 90 days free subscription,
> even though I'd used it for much longer than that
> prior to the format .
>
> How long ago did you do that? It was reported fairly
> recently on this forum that people could no longer do
> that as Symantec had wised up and changed things .

As its built into the software, Susan, it'd still work . The only way for it not to work is if the 2004 version is being used, as Symantec would have to update the software - the software that's installed looks for the subscription somewhere on disk, not online, so a format would remove that, and a reinstall would create a new one .

Mike .
Mike (15)
203958 2003-12-29 07:26:00 > > I had Nortons 2002 OEM which came with a
> motherboard I had, and what seemed to happen was when
> I reformatted, it actually "reset" my subscription so
> that I was back to the 90 days free subscription,
> even though I'd used it for much longer than that
> prior to the format .
>
> How long ago did you do that? It was reported fairly
> recently on this forum that people could no longer do
> that as Symantec had wised up and changed things .

Nope it still works even on the 2004 version . I had to reinstall my Internet Security Pro 2004 4 times due to various things and each time I did I cleared out the registry and it gave me a subscription date from the date of the install .
The problem however was the Activation hassles that went with it .
Big John (551)
203959 2003-12-29 07:41:00 I think it was about 6 months or so ago - can't remember exactly. Have since bought a new PC with NIS 2003. somebody (208)
203960 2003-12-29 07:51:00 Can you confirm you actually have the Nortons disk?
If it is OEM NAV it pays to actually check you have the program.
I did a complete reinstall and the OEM disk I thought Nortons was on wasnt.
Gloom and despondency I had to buy the software.
Before when ever it came for renewal I just run reglclean and it put the subscription out another 90 days.
Naughty yes but in the famous words of Ho Chi Minh who cares

tedheath
tedheath (537)
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