My KAV Personal stopped running unexpectedly today.

Initially I thought that this was an old bug that had returned, but then I noticed the date, and it really was due to expire today.

But it wasn't midnight yet (at least not in my time zone) !!!

Now I was home, and I was aware of my expiry date, but what if it had just been the kids at home?

Would the kids have ignored the pop-up and continued surfing.

Might the kids have surfed the internet unprotected ???

Might the kids have installed a different antivirus?

So I'd like to suggest that KAV deliver warnings before it expires.

1. Beginning 1 to 2 weeks before expiry: At login time, display a bubble pop-up for 15 to 30 seconds. (A quiet reminder expiry time is approaching.)

2. Beginning the day before KAV expires: At login time and every 4 hours, a prominent renewal reminder pop-up window requiring an acknowledgement be clicked. Continue full protection without nagging because the product doesn't expire until midnight at the end of the day it expires in the timezone the computer is set to.

3. Begining upon expiry: At login time and every hour, display the prominent renewal reminder pop-up window requiring acknowlegement. (That is, nag the user to renew.) Continue full protection for a grace period of about 4 days.

Provide this grace period because:

a ) The customer's kids won't know how to renew protection. This prevents KAV's expiry causing the kids to surf the internet unprotected.

b ) If the customer's kids download a free anti-virus, or if they download a free trial of some other product, KL may well loose the customer.

4. It would probably be a good idea to send a reminder e-mail as well. However, if you send the email too far ahead (like 3-4 weeks ahead for a home user), it will likely be discarded unread.

this actions can annoy customer. u should look after experiation date of licensed key. and if date expires u can use antivirus and antivirus will work properly but updates will not be availabe. u will have enough time to buy new key and install it. it can take few days but it is normally and u have a low chance to be infected by virus, because ur KAV will work properly. so u should protect ur KAV by password from children.

Definitely!. This Kaspersky-policy is very irritating. It's not fair. You buy a relatively expensive product and when your date of license expires, then it's "over". A death penalty is over you. And that's definitely not fair on my book. Not providing you with new updates, that's quite o.k and fair, but not providing you to make use of the product you BOUGHT, no, that's NOT fair. Just like it's not fair if we could not use a program which came in a cd after a year of usage. It doesn't happen at all. You can still use it. It's inside the cd, just go there and reinstall it (of course, in case of an AV, new updates are not going to be downloaded from the time of expiration, but the FUNCTIONALITY of the product is still "there", it doesn't "expire" at all. Never).

I received an email 1-2 weeks before the expiry date, but as it happened, I renewed before that arrived. Having that reminder is beneficial though.

However, whilst it's nice of KL to remind one that their licence is up for renewal, I think the onus is on the user to know these things themselves.

Hi,

Comparing the expiry of a KL license to "death penalty" sounds a bit improper to me. What KL product are you talking about anyways?
As far as I know, all our products DO work even after the license expired, just the updater gets blocked.
What`s the big deal anyways? How about getting a renewal license and all will be fine :-).
Greetings


P.S.: If you buy a product with a time limit, it should not be of much surprise when it does not work beyond the limit.

Personal Pro 5.0.390
with a corrupted key, then the Kasperskyicon is greyed out.

Kilauea

Hello. I'm sorry, didn't mean to be so rude. However, a limit-time usage is NOT very acceptable since the time we bought the product. This product (as every other one) SHOULD be free for use once you buy it. There's a nice difference between an update restriction and "closing the doors" of the product completely just after 1 year after the purchase. Just my opinion. Best regards.

Hi,

I do understand your point (was not that rude at all, no worries).
Please write your statement to support@kaspersky.com.
Include all relevant info like full Product Version and customer/key-id.
Maybe this will not help anything, but it will be the valued input of a KL customer and thus reviewed.
Thanks and greetings

Hi Micha -

KAV really did appear to stop working.

That said, I didn't actually bother to test if it had stopped. (My only concern was to stay unplugged from the web until I got my KAV working again.)

You probably have access to a test system and KAV license keys so this experiment should only take 10 minutes or so. The experiment would be to install an expired KAV 5 license key on the test system, re-boot the system, and test to see if KAV still detects a test virus.

If KAV doesn't detect a test virus it is no longer protecting the system. And if it does, it is.

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

Still, the best case is that KAV has appeared to stop protecting the computer. That appearance of having unexpectedly stopped working could still lead to customers switching products.

Tony does make a valid point that customers are responsible for keeping their software subscriptions paid. But no matter whose fault it is, a lost customer means lost revenue to KL from lost renewal money. KL might feel better having the customer to blame for lost revenues, but does having someone else to blame make up for the lost revenue?

KL should consider that as its product becomes more popular, it is going to be used by more families with children, and more small companies. These sorts of organizations are often not terribly good at doing business. So flexibility and improved communications by the vendor become more important.

I'm just suggesting:

1. Give the customer more warning the product is about to expire. One email two weeks before expiry is not enough. An email 2 weeks before, 1 week before, and 1 day before expiry would be good. But many email addresses change in a year, so don't rely just on email. During the last week, use daily pop-ups to warn the user of the pending expiry.

2. Consider the product as expired at midnight at the end of the last day as measured by time on the customer's computer in the customer's time zone.

Ordinary North Americans don't expect their products to expire on GMT or Moscow time.

3. If the product expires, provide a 4 to 7 day grace period of continuing protection before cutting the customer off. During the grace period, use "nag" pop-ups every (say) two hours to remind the customer of the need renew.

- Keith

Hi Keith2468,

Thanks for your suggestion. Even though the KL policy of license matters is surely thougt over very well, there indeed might be points, which could be improved. Whenever I should get the time to look deeper into it, I`ll do that, think it over and act, if there should really be the need for it.

As just an example randomly taken from real life:
When I drive a car, it needs gasoline (in most cases) and that gasoline will not last forever. So there is a sensor installed in that car, showing how much gasoline is left.
I am aware of the fact, that when the gasoline is empty, the car will no more move in the expected way.
THAT is one of the reasons, I buy new gasoline before it gets empty .

Of course, you cannot compare a car with Anti-Virus software but I`d think, that there is some common pattern.
Thanks for speaking up in that matter, I DO see your point and will try to get more info about it.
Regards,
Micha

I just wanted to say, I agree. The normal "home user" (or new person / noob), doesn't really keep such track of those things (even though they should) and a nice reminder could be helpful. A two or three day grace period after the renew date would be nice, even if its a limited update (optional).

Further more, I do agree that the program should continue to work, even after it expires (but with no updates). An non - updated anti-virus program is very useless, but its still paid for and is still "some kind" of protection, until the "user" either decides to renew (the smart choice) or not.

Hi There we are also using kaspersky and it was about to expire but we had not purchase yet the license, is it possible to disable the kaspersky license reminder, i have tried already disabling it in the service settings but still, it prompts whenever i start the computer, hope someone can help me here


thanks

In v7/v6 just go to Appearance >> Event Notification >> Advanced >> "License Key Expires Soon"

If the product has a shelf life - the license expires in some way based on the time since it was issued from the factory as well as having a life based on one year since it was instaled/activated - is there a way to test if the license is still good and for how long without going into activation.

I ask this because periodically dealers have special offers on boxed product etc - like the one at the momemt where www.dabs.com are selling KIS at half price - I would buy that box and use the license as a renewal when my current key expired. Now I'm finding that the key bought in advance can expire in the box.

Is there a way to check the key expiry without activating (a web page or something?)

No, there isn't.....................loading up on cheap licenses is not something i'd recommend since there is not an unlimited time you can have them before they run out even if you don't activate. So stacking five 1 year licenses and then use them one by one for 5 years is not possible....a couple of years will go fine i guess, but not indefinitely, you will find that it might be expensive in the end!