Only 1 of my 4 computers has done automatic upgrade from 2020 to 2021 version. Why?

[Patrick O'Keefe]

This sort of a continuation of thread https://community.kaspersky.com/kaspersky-internet-security-13/how-to-obtain-an-offline-installer-11454?postid=57171#post57171

asking about offline installer and preventing automatic upgrades.

In that thread I was informed that KIS will now automatically upgrade to version 2021 and beyond.  However, only 1 of my 4 computers has done that that upgrade.  The other three stayed at 20.0.14.1085(m).   I’ve confirmed that I do not have the registry hack in place that disables automatic upgrade.  Has Kaspersky stopped doing the automatic upgrades or is there something special about these computers?  (All are running Win10 2004.) 

If Kaspersky has reversed its policy on automatic upgrades I will stop looking for alternatives to KIS.

[Schulte]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe,

the upgrade is distributed step by step. Your computers will receive it, but the date is not known.

You can always upgrade manually to the latest version.
Download and run the appropriate online installer.

I assume that Kaspersky will maintain the update policy. Having to support too many different versions is not good for security.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I have no particular desire to the latest version yet.  I do have a desire to control when I install new versions of mission-critical software such as security software.  Because I can no longer do that with KIS I am looking at other vendor’s products.

Allowing us to choose when we upgrade would not force Kaspersky to support any more versions than they support right now.  They are obviously currently supporting the 2020 and 2021 versions.  They could publish the end-of-support date for the old version and let us decide when to make the move.

[Wesly.Zhang]

Hello,

If you want to quick upgrade to 2021 build, you should change a registry key of product. The overall product push progress is pushed gradually in stages.

Regards.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

 

If you want to quick upgrade to 2021 build, you should change a registry key of product. The overall product push progress is pushed gradually in stages.

 

No.  I want just the opposite of a quick upgrade.  I want to delay the upgrade until I’m ready!  As it happens, I’m ready now, but I was absolutely not ready when I the upgrade on my one PC  happened.  It happened with the reboot immediately following my upgrade of Win10 1909 to 2004.  If Kaspersky developers think that’s an appropriate time to install a new version of KIS then they have no respect for their customers.

We need to be able to control when upgrades happen.

[Wesly.Zhang]

 

If you want to quick upgrade to 2021 build, you should change a registry key of product. The overall product push progress is pushed gradually in stages.

 

No.  I want just the opposite of a quick upgrade.  I want to delay the upgrade until I’m ready!  As it happens, I’m ready now, but I was absolutely not ready when I the upgrade on my one PC  happened.  It happened with the reboot immediately following my upgrade of Win10 1909 to 2004.  If Kaspersky developers think that’s an appropriate time to install a new version of KIS then they have no respect for their customers.

We need to be able to control when upgrades happen.

Hello,

You can use the following methods to control whether to automatically upgrade the version.

Set 0 means I don’t want to upgrade product.

Set 1 means I want to upgrade product. Now You can control it.

But be carefully, When you upgard OS version to the latest build, You should install the latest KIS product in order to avoid the compatibility issues from OS.

Regards.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Igor Kurzin sent me that in a PM but now that you posted it publicly I guess I can talk about it.  If I stay with Kaspersky products I will definitely use that registry hack.  I looks like I have to change AVP20.0 to whatever values the new versions use.  And I will need to always have an offline installer for the previous version in case of major problems (and hope that the latest Kaspersky database is compatible with that previous version).

 

Having experienced a KIS upgrade at about the most inconvenient possible time, I have the strong impression that Kaspersky really does not care about its impact on customers.  Unfortunately, I can find no acceptable alternative.  (I can find no alternative security suite that contain both good antivirus and god firewall capabilities.  One or the other, but not both.)

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Patrick O'Keefe, 

Of course you can “talk about it”, there’s a multitude of people who are very unimpressed, unhappy, dissatisfied & more, with Kaspersky’s forced automatic upgrade policy, the issue has been discussed time & time again in this Community & other web resources, Kaspersky is not listening. 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳+🐋

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Hello,

You can use the following methods to control whether to automatically upgrade the version.

...

Maybe I’m blind, but it looks like I’m supposed to set IsVersionUpdateEnabled to both a double word value of 0 and a string value of 0.  That didn’t seem right, but I tried it anyway using a .reg file containing

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\KasperskyLab\AVP20.0\environment]
"IsVersionUpdateEnabled"=dword:00000000
"IsVersionUpdateEnabled"="0"

As expected, it said only one value.  (I don’t remember which, but I suspect the last specified.)  I then built 2 files - one with each value.  The registry is set with whichever is run last.

Are there supposed to be 2 different names there?

BTW, I got that exact same information from Igor Kurzin  so I suspect there’s either some trick to doing this that I’ve missed, or that there is a Kaspersky Knowledge Base article containing an error.

[Wesly.Zhang]

Hello,

You can use the following methods to control whether to automatically upgrade the version.

...

Maybe I’m blind, but it looks like I’m supposed to set IsVersionUpdateEnabled to both a double word value of 0 and a string value of 0.  That didn’t seem right, but I tried it anyway using a .reg file containing

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\KasperskyLab\AVP20.0\environment]
"IsVersionUpdateEnabled"=dword:00000000
"IsVersionUpdateEnabled"="0"

As expected, it said only one value.  (I don’t remember which, but I suspect the last specified.)  I then built 2 files - one with each value.  The registry is set with whichever is run last.

Are there supposed to be 2 different names there?

BTW, I got that exact same information from Igor Kurzin  so I suspect there’s either some trick to doing this that I’ve missed, or that there is a Kaspersky Knowledge Base article containing an error.

Hello,

You can test which of the two will work. I did not analyze why this registry key is constructed using different data types. Perhaps the enterprise version product and the personal version product use different data types for the same registry key. They are quoted together here, who knows why. You can see which of them can take effect in KIS/KAV/KTS 2010 version.

Regards.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Hello,

You can test which of the two will work. I did not analyze why this registry key is constructed using different data types. Perhaps the enterprise version product and the personal version product use different data types for the same registry key. They are quoted together here, who knows why. You can see which of them can take effect in KIS/KAV/KTS 2010 version.

Regards.

That is going to be difficult to test.  One of my copies of KIS 20 automatically upgraded 8 weeks ago.  The other 3 have not.  I can change the registry on 2 of them, but I won’t know when the lack of upgrade is because of the registry change or just coincidence.

 

Actually, one of the 3 un-upgraded copies I replaced with a competitive product.  If I reinstall KIS 2020 maybe the installation will trigger an automatic upgrade.  I’ll try that.  Can I add the registry record before reinstalling KIS, or will the installation delete the registry record?

[Wesly.Zhang]

Hello,

You can test which of the two will work. I did not analyze why this registry key is constructed using different data types. Perhaps the enterprise version product and the personal version product use different data types for the same registry key. They are quoted together here, who knows why. You can see which of them can take effect in KIS/KAV/KTS 2010 version.

Regards.

That is going to be difficult to test.  One of my copies of KIS 20 automatically upgraded 8 weeks ago.  The other 3 have not.  I can change the registry on 2 of them, but I won’t know when the lack of upgrade is because of the registry change or just coincidence.

 

Actually, one of the 3 un-upgraded copies I replaced with a competitive product.  If I reinstall KIS 2020 maybe the installation will trigger an automatic upgrade.  I’ll try that.  Can I add the registry record before reinstalling KIS, or will the installation delete the registry record?

Hello,

You can add the registry record before reinstalling KIS. Also you can delete avp upgrade task scheme in Windows Administrators Tool → Task scheduler

Regards.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Thank you!  Actually, I’ll probably disable rather than delete the upgrade task, but that sounds like the best solution.  Then I don’t have to determine which type of registry record to create.  I will have to remember check, and probably re-disable,  whenever I manually do a KIS upgrade, but I’d have to add a new registry record each time if I used the registry technique. 

[Khan]

Thank you very much Wesly.Zhang for the information regarding disabling the event in Task Scheduler.  As has been stated here and in other posts, most advanced users want to be in control of when their software is updated. I feel this is an unadvised step by Kaspersky. Thank you again for the information.

[Wesly.Zhang]

Thank you very much Wesly.Zhang for the information regarding disabling the event in Task Scheduler.  As has been stated here and in other posts, most advanced users want to be in control of when their software is updated. I feel this is an unadvised step by Kaspersky. Thank you again for the information.

Hello @Khan 

You are welcome. 🤝

[Kevbus10]

Igor Kurzin sent me that in a PM but now that you posted it publicly I guess I can talk about it.  If I stay with Kaspersky products I will definitely use that registry hack.  I looks like I have to change AVP20.0 to whatever values the new versions use.  And I will need to always have an offline installer for the previous version in case of major problems (and hope that the latest Kaspersky database is compatible with that previous version).

 

Having experienced a KIS upgrade at about the most inconvenient possible time, I have the strong impression that Kaspersky really does not care about its impact on customers.  Unfortunately, I can find no acceptable alternative.  (I can find no alternative security suite that contains both good antivirus and god firewall capabilities.  One or the other, but not both.)

An acceptable alternative is Norton 360 Premium. I had endless trouble with this automatic upgrade from KTS 2020 to 2021 and my licences suddenly being invalidated. I must have uninstalled on 7 of our 10 machines at least 3 times only to find the problem popping up agin within a few days. The vendor even went so far as to give me new activation keys as we bout a 10 licence pack. I went back to the 2019 version which gives one the ability to stop automatic upgrades. Been stable now for at least 3 weeks. Also sick of being overwhelmed by pop-ups of each and every Kaspersky product for sale including kids safe……. good luck

[Stenoboy]

I had this problem, too.  The answer for me was my computers are on One Drive.  After upgrading to version 2021 from the prompt, the shortcut created on the Desktop was shared on another computer with 2020.  I used the 2021 shortcut and was prompted to upgrade to 2021, and it worked without a problem.