Just a quick note for anyone who suffers the same problem when they update to Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 to say what solutions I tried and which one, with the help of the Kaspersky Support folks, finally worked.
I saw the warnings (about to expire) and bought myself a 3 PC licence – but waited till the last possible day before installing it (not sure it makes much difference, but there you go).
But, when I came to activate the first one, I saw the error below:
I checked the activation code – but if I changed it (the font they use is not the most readable after all) it says it’s invalid while you type.
So, first I searched the internet – but the only solution I found was this one:
http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=221536
which suggested uninstalling – but it didn’t work.
Kaspersky Support
So I contacted Kaspersky Support – not something I often have to do…
Their first suggestion, after asking for some screen shots (and I provided the GetSystemInfo output as well) was to delete the old licence and rebooting.
To do this I clicked the small red X next to the Licence Number in the image above.
Rebooting and trying again – but it still didn’t work.
So, the final advice they gave me was (included here for your benefit):
Dear Mr Williams,
Please do a clean install of Kaspersky following the below:
NOTE: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR ACTIVATION CODE TO HAND BEFORE YOU DO THIS AS YOU WILL NEED IT TO ACTIVATE.
Step 1:
Please download Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 from the web link below:
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kis_latest_versions
– Click on the green download button to the right of Version 2012 (12.0.0.374). Choose save when a dialogue box appears and save to you documents or to your desktop. It may take an average of 5 to 20 minutes to download, depending on your internet connection speed.
Step 2:
If you have used a previous version of a Kaspersky product(s) on your machine, you will need to completely remove it along with any traces it may leave behind by using the Kaspersky removal tool.
Note: If you are installing Kaspersky product for the very first time, please skip this procedure.
Please click on the link below to download the Removal Tool:
http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/kavremover.exe
– Choose save, when a dialogue box appears and save to your documents or to your desktop. Do not run the file just yet.
– If Kaspersky is still installed on your pc, you should first uninstall this via the normal process:
– Go to Start->Control Panel->Programs & Features/ Add or remove programs/ Uninstall a program and choose Kaspersky from the list and uninstall it, the PC will reboot at the end.
– Then locate the file KAVRemover.exe and run it.
NOTE: You will either see a list of Kaspersky products where you can select the version you had, or you will see a product in the list that has already been detected by the removal tool.
– Select the version of the Kaspersky product you previously had installed from the drop down list. Enter the security code you will see on screen and click on “ Remove”
– Or run the tool by entering code and pressing remove if your product is already listed.
– Once the removal tool has finished you need to restart your computer.
(If the machine contains multiple (previous) versions of Kaspersky, please run the tool again, the second time you run it you need to specify the other product(s) from the list, followed by a reboot of the pc e.g. If 2009, 2010 and 2011 had been installed before, you should run it each time specifying the version followed by a reboot.
Once the removal tool has been run for the second/third time, restart the computer.
Step 3:
– After the computer has restarted, please find the Kaspersky Installation file where you saved it earlier on and double left click it. When prompted by windows, choose run and click yes to any other security prompts to begin the installation.
– In a few minutes you will see a window “Welcome to Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Setup Wizard”. Choose next to continue.
– Follow the installation wizard prompts, clicking next until you see the option to install – click install when you are ready to do so.
– You will then come to a screen that says Installation complete. Please tick the box at the bottom right that says “Run Kaspersky Internet Security “then select finish.
– After a few minutes you will be presented with a window prompting to activate Kaspersky. (You will need to be connected to the internet at this point)
– Choose to activate commercial version
– Enter your activation code (The code is not case sensitive.) Once the code is entered please check it is correct and then click next.
– After a few checks the activation wizard should return the message “Activation completed successfully “. Please select Finish.
So – did it work? Yes, of course it did.
Thanks Kaspersky Folks.
Just a follow on note – I had a 3 PC licence version of Kaspersky and I had two more PCs that needed updating.
Not wanting to see the same problem I tried simply adding the licence key to the existing (2011) version without upgrading. This was accepted – so afterwards I then download and installed the latest version and, what do you know, it works perfectly.