Thank you for your feedback. As it takes continuous effort on our side to keep VisualGDB up-to-date, and test it with the new devices, tools and frameworks, we have to limit free updates to 1 year since the license purchase, and ask for license renewal afterwards.

We try to be very explicit about our renewal policy. Our buy page mentions the 1-year period and the renewal page provides a link to the latest version that can run with your key if you do not want to renew the license. Due to the way the installer framework works, it can only verify the license key after VisualGDB has been installed and you load it in Visual Studio.

That said, you can always uninstall the new VisualGDB version and install back the old one without losing any settings.

No problem. Also please note that as you have used the 50% renewal discount, your previous support/update expiration date has been extended by 1 year, placing it at 49 days from now. If this was not intended, you can instead use the 10% late renewal discount that will place it to 1 year from now (please contact our sales if you need a link to pay the difference). Or you could do another 50% renewal any time (before or after expiration) to add another year to the current expiration date.

We do our best to avoid confusion. We show the expiration date in the Help->About VisualGDB window and if VisualGDB fails to activate due to an old key, it directs to the MyKey page that lists renewal/upgrade options and also allows downloading the older VisualGDB versions.

Edit: the poster below pointed out the confusion here, so we will try to clarify. Any version released while the update period was active should be able to activate. Preview builds of VisualGDB may activate even beyond that, however updating to the next stable release will require active renewal period at the time of that release.

No problem, we will clarify. You can use any version that was released within the “free update” year for free. In your example, you will be able to use the “VisualGDB-5.5.2.2222.msi” version (released just before the year was up) forever.

That said, VisualGDB always shows the update link to the latest available version, not the latest version compatible with the current license key. If you try activating that version with a key that is not compatible (i.e. had the “free update” year expired before the release date), it will direct you to the https://sysprogs.com/splm/mykey page where you can either renew your key, or download the latest version that works with it.

Update: We usually do not enforce expiry limits on early preview builds (e.g. VisualGDB 5.5 Preview X). I.e. they will often successfully activate even if the renewal period was already expired at the time of release. Once we switch from a Preview build to a stable build (5.5RCx or 5.5Ry), we start enforcing the expiry limits again, so updating from Preview X to a stable build may require renewing the license.

Hope this explains. Let us know if you have any further questions.