How to obtain an offline installer of KIS 2021?

[Patrick O'Keefe]

8 days ago I opened a ticket with Kaspersky support asking if I could have an offline installer for KIS 21.1.15.1500.  The status is still “Waiting for processing the request”.  Is there anything else I can do?

I don’t feel a pressing need to upgrade to KIS 2021, but one of my 4 computers already automatically upgraded.  I want to upgrade the other 3 on my own schedule. 

In the open case I also asked if there is any way to keep the 3 computers  that are on KIS 2020 from automatically upgrading.  At the moment I consider that a more pressing problem than getting the offline loader (but I will want that loader eventually).

I  

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe,

Welcome!

• Regarding keeping existing devices at v2020, no, Kaspersky have changed the process, now they’re automatically upgrading versions, they’ve removed the option for us to make that decision😡
• Regarding the request that has “ Waiting for processing the request ”, does the incident request number start with INC000011* or a  31* number?
• If it’s  31*, it indicates a problem with an incident submission or the MyKaspersky portal, 31* numbers should always convert to the INC000011**** format.
• Contact Kaspersky Technical Support, select your Location, then select from options: Online Chat (not available all locations), Phone (not available all locations), explain there’s an INC that has not been responded to, also give them the existing case number. 
• If your Location does not have Chat & or Phone support, post the incident number here in your Topic please, then hopefully one of the Kaspersky experts who attend to this Community will help🤔 ? 

Please share the outcome with the Community when it’s available?

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳

[Igor Kurzin]

Hi @Patrick O'Keefe, please pm me the incident number, we will check. 

Regards,

Igor

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I am having trouble responding on this forum.  My input just got erased for the 3rd time.  Here’s a short, unformatted reply.

@Flood:

My problem ticket number does not match the format you mentioned.  It’s just numeric: 319539907.  Maybe I found an old obsolete Kaspersky support page.

 

@Igor Kurzin:

I am not familiar with this forum and cannot figure out how to PM you.   My message could not be sent because (the web page claimed) I had not specified a “subject” but the web page had no “Subject” field.  However, I have included the incident number above.

 

Maybe if KIS 2020 insists on automatic upgrades I should return to KIS 2019.  Will a current KIS2020 license work with KIS2019?

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe,

Thank you for replying👌

• 3* is the number format the portal allocates before it processes an INC, when the INC has been “saved & sent” the number converts to INC000011* . The fact your INC is still 319539907 explains why you’ve not had a response from Technical Support in the last 8 days. Had the INC submitted as it should have, the Technical Team normally respond within 24 to 48 hours. 
• To PM anyone in the Community, click on their tag, select the envelope & or select Send message

 

• KIS19 will also upgrade to v21, Kaspersky have “automated” the upgrade process. 
• The KIS20 license will work with KIS19. 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳

[Patrick O'Keefe]

To PM anyone in the Community, click on their tag & select Send message

Duh!  I had to be logged in before the Send button appeared.

 

Thank you.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

There has been no change since I last posted to this thread.

• My problem report to Kaspersky Support is still “Waiting for processing”.
• I think I PM’ed but have heard nothing back.
• My 3 still computers running KIS 2020 have not attempted upgrades … 21 days after the automatic upgrade of one of my computers. 

While preventing automatic upgrade was my primary concern when I opened this thread, that no longer seems a worry.  It looks like it’s not going to happen.

I did a clean reinstall of Windows on one of the computers and luckily had a copy of the kis20.0.14.1085_en_full installer.   I have not found an installer download on the Kaspersky web site except for trial versions.   What is the appropriate way to reinstall KIS after a reinstallation of Windows?

I did find a KIS 2021 stub installer for a trial version.  I don’t like using a stub installer because there is no way to back out and get to a previous working version, but I guess the stub is better that nothing.   Does kis21.1.15.500en_es_25816 install a cut down trial version, or could I give it my license key / activation code to run a non-trial version?

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe,

Welcome back!

 “Waiting for processing”, indicates the request has not completed submitting correctly.

• Contact Kaspersky Technical Support, provide the full history, including the request number of the  “Waiting for processing” issue, ask them to assist, on Support, page, select Country, select Support for Home Products, Application Use, select from available options: Phone (not available all locations), Online Chat (not available all locations).

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳

@Igor Kurzin please respond to @Patrick O'Keefe ?

[Igor Kurzin]

Hi @FLOOD,

Thank you for pinging me. 

Hi @Patrick O'Keefe, 

Please check your PMs. 

Does kis21.1.15.500en_es_25816 install a cut down trial version, or could I give it my license key / activation code to run a non-trial version?

Trial version is identical to the commercial version. 

Regards,

Igor

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I forgot to update this thread.   In an offline communication, Igor Kurzin provided me with a link to the offline installer and requested I not post the link on any public forum.  I find the Kaspersky positions towards the offline installer and the mandatory automatic upgrade function very puzzling and irritating.  Because of these positions I have started looking at alternative security packages.

I have not bothered to look at the status of my problem ticket.

 

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe, 

Thank you for the update👌

@Igor Kurzin please respond to @Patrick O'Keefe’s concerns. 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳&🐋

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Igor doesn’t really need to respond.  I’m sure he doesn’t set Kaspersky policy.

I would like to understand how Kaspersky can think it appropriate to automatically update a customer’s version of KIS (or any other Kaspersky product) and not allow a manual reinstall of a previous release if a customer has problems.  That is unacceptable for mission-critical software such as security packages.  But if that is truly Kaspersky’s policy, then I need to find a different security package.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe, 

You’re welcome!

• As of version 21, Kaspersky have changed version updates, we, the customer, no longer have a choice, we can share with you everything Kaspersky has written (to use), however, (ioo) having a Kaspersky employee, spell it out to you, makes more sense. 
• It’s your call whether or not you wish for @Igor Kurzin to participate. 
   

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳&

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I certainly would not mind hearing an explanation from a Kaspersky employee.  I would like it even more if he could officially register my complaint about the policy.  I doubt that losing one customer is going to bother the decision-makers at Kaspersky, but I would like them to know that that is the effect of their policy.  (I just hope I can find a good alternative to KIS.)

 

 

[Flood and Flood's wife]

@Patrick O'Keefe, 

• If you wish to register a complaint, please do so by filling in a request in your MyKaspersky account, select Feedback, I have a complaint template

 

• FYI, there’s a long list people who are very unhappy about this issue, including a Community Moderator.

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳&🐋 

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I have submitted the request/complaint, and, even though I’ve recently purchased a 2-year renewal of my 5-computer KIS license, I’ve started looking for a replacement product. 

In my opinion, Kaspersky makes the best security product for the home and small office computer systems, but any product as critical as a security package has to provide a way to revert to a stable previous release.  Automatic upgrade is incompatible with system stability.

Hopefully Kaspersky will soon provide some way to make this automatic upgrade behavior optional, and will provide links to back-level versions of the software.

 

[Igor Kurzin]

Hi @Patrick O'Keefe , 

Hopefully Kaspersky will soon provide some way to make this automatic upgrade behavior optional, and will provide links to back-level versions of the software.

Already done. For situations when the version 2020 is needed due to issues with stability in newer version, there is a workaround: install version 2020 and make changes to registry to disable automatic upgrade to newer versions. Please check your PMs. 

Regards,

Igor

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Igor Kurzin, 

Does “all ready done”, mean the mandatory auto-upgrade “policy” has been reversed ?

Please let us know? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳&🐋 

[Igor Kurzin]

Hi Flood🐳&🐋, 

“Already done” means that “there is some way”, and it has been explained further in the text: “For situations when the version 2020 is needed due to issues with stability in newer version, there is a workaround: install version 2020 and make changes to registry to disable automatic upgrade to newer versions. ”

You are welcome🙏

Igor

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Igor Kurzin, 

Thank you!

• That’s disappointing, there’s been much discussion & discontent (refer @Patrick O'Keefe’s remarks as one example) about forced auto-upgrades. 
• Many members of this Community would like to be able to choose when we accept a new version, especially, as has turned out with v21, the first phase of the release has been so buggy. 
• Kaspersky could at least give us an option to delay accepting a new version, until the majority of the bugs have been eliminated 🤔
• Let’s hope Kaspersky reverses the mandatory auto-upgrade policy 🤔

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳&🐋 

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Igor sent me instructions to implement the auto-upgrade circumvention.  It contains a simple registry hack.

This tells me:

1. Anyone that makes enough public noise can obtain the circumvention.
2. It would be trivial for Kaspersky to implement this as a user option.
3. There is nothing in KIS that requires this auto-upgrade function.
4. Kaspersky Labs does not care that is function causes problems for users.

The statement

“For situations when the version 2020 is needed due to issues with stability in newer version, there is a workaround”

misses a larger point.  Actually, it misses 2 points:

1. The upgrade itself is disruptive even if there are no stability problems with the new version.  The user needs to be able to schedule this upgrade so that it does not happen during important work.  It especially needs to immediately following a reboot.  (My KIS upgrade immediately followed the final reboot of a Win 10 2004 upgrade - a truly terrible time.)
2. If the upgrade has already happened and causes problems, there needs to be a way to reinstall a back-level version.  These back-level versions need to be available to all users at all times.  We should not have to open a problem ticket or PM Igor right when KIS is misbehaving.   Being able to download any patch level of the previous version would be reasonable.

It bothers me that Kaspersky Labs doesn’t already understand (or care about) this.  It tells me they have lost touch of their customer base.

I am now trying to determine if other security software vendors have the same policies.  I would not want to switch to another security package only to discover it also does an automatic upgrade.

 

 

[Igor Kurzin]

hi Patrick, 

You do not need to make noise to get the 2020 version installer and the registry hint. A simple request to technical support and explanation of why 2020 version is needed should be enough. 

As for the company policy, the idea is to focus more on one version and not to scatter resources over several product versions. This should help resolve more issues in one version and thus make it as close to perfection as possible. If still you face an issue, the workaround to get back to version 2020 is still there and you can get it via technical support. 

Regards,

Igor

[Patrick O'Keefe]

the workaround to get back to version 2020 is still there and you can get it via technical support. 

I guess my opinion is very different. 

I think a user should always have a copy the installer of the previous version of any important software, and should be able reinstall that previous version without need to contact technical support and without fear that that previous version will not automatically upgrade itself.   The vendor would not need to maintain downloads for more than the previous and current versions, and would not even have to provide support for the previous version.

You have suggested one workaround.  I suggest that a better workaround is to find a competitive product that allows customers to control their upgrades.

[Danila T.]

Hello,

Please see:

Link