Payment Required After Upgrade?

[MikeGranby]

So VisualGDB just offered me an upgrade, and when I installed it, told me my license key was out of date such that I had to renew my support to continue. I was basically left with no choice since I needed to continue working at that moment, and didn’t want to risk reinstalling the old version as I didn’t have time to mess about. If an upgrade is going to require re-upping support, that should be made clear BEFORE installation. Love the product, but that wasn’t cool.

[support]

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.

[MikeGranby]

I understand fully, and as I say, I love the product. I was just surprised to find myself locked out! 🙂

[support]

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.

[grindstaffp]

Funny, I was bitten by this too. I knew my support was due for renewal but didn’t realize that after the support period, the key only activates the current version at time of purchase, not the version that had been activated up to that point. Annoying but such is life.

[support]

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.

[arrow201]

Hi,

I’m going to be evaluating this product soon and want to be clear with the licensing. So, if I’m reading the above correctly, if I purchase, for example, at version “VisualGDB-5.5.1.1111.msi” and there are updates during the year, I can use these updates for “free” during the year from the time of purchase. Just before the year is up, let’s say the version is now at “VisualGDB-5.5.2.2222.msi”. After the year is up, are you saying if I want to keep using it without renewing, I have to uninstall the updates and go back to version “VisualGDB-5.5.1.1111.msi”? If that’s the case, I can certainly see why the above users are confused, to me, reading the “Buy” page gives the impression that you can continue to use the product with the last update before the year was up.

[support]

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.

[Author]

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