EXCEEDED ACTIVIATION

I tried to activate the Xara designer Premium 10 after I purchased it and it gave the message that I have exceeded the activation. I use the program on my computer at the office and at home - A computer have also crashed in the process which means I had to reinstall and activate several times, in all honesty I do not need to explain all the details. I am the only one using on the software, I purchased it and it is my right to use it, to tell me I have exceeded my activation is in my opinion ridiculous as a result I had to postpone work due to Xara.
Kindly advise how this matter can be expedited and resolved. I am considering purchasing other web design software if this is the service I receive from Xara.

You sill need to file a support ticket at www.xara.com. They are the only ones who can resolve this problem.

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Originally Posted by hdebeer

I tried to activate the Xara designer Premium 10 after I purchased it and it gave the message that I have exceeded the activation. I use the program on my computer at the office and at home - A computer have also crashed in the process which means I had to reinstall and activate several times, in all honesty I do not need to explain all the details. I am the only one using on the software, I purchased it and it is my right to use it, to tell me I have exceeded my activation is in my opinion ridiculous as a result I had to postpone work due to Xara.
Kindly advise how this matter can be expedited and resolved. I am considering purchasing other web design software if this is the service I receive from Xara.

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I totally agree, having recently purchased the V11 and then converting to Win 10 and because of issues reverting back to Win 7. Even though I uninstalled Xara V11, I still received a warning that I will not be able to reactivate for another 30 days even though it is on the same computer! This is unacceptable particularly as I am considering installing win 10 as a dualboot. When I initially installed the new version of Xara I deleted my previous version. If I lose access to V11 it seems I might also not be able to reactive my old version. If this policy is not revised, like you, I will revert to Corel and no more upgrades from Xara.

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Originally Posted by hdebeer

I am considering purchasing other web design software if this is the service I receive from Xara.

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What have you actually asked Xara for?
You have had bad luck with you machines and Xara have the right to protect their intellectual property. I also thought that the activation was against a specific machine so, normally, such activations would pass through easily.
I have always found Xara helpful in such matters, I am sure they will be for you too.

Acorn

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Originally Posted by Phill

I totally agree, having recently purchased the V11 and then converting to Win 10 and because of issues reverting back to Win 7. Even though I uninstalled Xara V11, I still received a warning that I will not be able to reactivate for another 30 days even though it is on the same computer! This is unacceptable particularly as I am considering installing win 10 as a dualboot. When I initially installed the new version of Xara I deleted my previous version. If I lose access to V11 it seems I might also not be able to reactive my old version. If this policy is not revised, like you, I will revert to Corel and no more upgrades from Xara.

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It is not easy to spot but there is a Deactive program function that you should have run before uninstalling / deleting / upgrading Windows / reverting Windows. Xara still thinks you have a licensed version running.

Again, contact Xara and explain what you product you have and what you did, or are attempting to do. Xara does assist.

Acorn

P.S. I have no connection with the company through there are a few Xara staff who do contribute to the Fora. We TGers try to assist with program and design aspects; licensing is firmly with Xara so you must contact them directly.

I received a reply from Xara to the effect that they had taken care of the problem. Well they had not! I now have to wait another couple of days (which has been more than a month) to reactivate my copy on the original computer it was installed on. What has this got do do with protection of intellectual rights? I have not had similar problems with Adobe, Corel or even Microsoft Office all of which have been reinstalled to the same unaltered computer without a problem. I have paid Xara to be able to use it on my own computers, is it unreasonable that I am trying to use what I have paid for? This is my last paid upgrade to Xara if that is the way they treat their customers. I also was not too thrilled that they included a bloatware program (Simpltek) or something with the installation, even though there was a difficult to spot option to opt out of install. That was a pain to get rid of

Hi,

What is your ticket number and we'll look into this.

I didn't have a problem when I took the upgrade to Windows 10 on my Laptop but at the weekend I replaced its hard drive with one of a larger size ghosting the original disk image across.

When I cam to start Web Designer, I got a pop-up telling me that my copy was not activated and that I would have to de-activate one of the two machines I had registered (I also have a tablet). I did this and then re-activated the Laptop and all was fine until the next time that I ran Web Designer when I got exactly the same pop-up only this time, when I tried to re-activate it, I was told that I had exceeded my 're-activations' and would have to wait 30 days before I could try again.

I've raised a ticket but I'm still waiting for a response and in the meanwhile I can't use Web Designer in my work.

I am not a happy bunny!

Hi steve911,

What is your ticket number and we'll look into this.

Just as a follow on to my original post.

I have no problem with Xara seeking to protect their intellectual copyright but their implementation of this policy has left a lot to be desired creating a lot of unnecessary frustration.

My own problem was that I was frequently getting a pop-up message when starting WD11 telling me that I had exceeded the number of activations even though the hardware of the two installations I had, one on my desktop and one on my laptop, had not changed - or so I thought.

It turned out that the message was being triggered simply by my having plugged my mobile phone into one of the USB ports to recharge it; the software decided that this simple action, something that many people must do every day, turned the laptop into a different, third device and that therefore I had exceeded the number of permitted activations.

Protecting intellectual property rights is fine by me but lets keep in contact with everyday reality guys. ;)

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Originally Posted by steve911

It turned out that the message was being triggered simply by my having plugged my mobile phone into one of the USB ports to recharge it; the software decided that this simple action, something that many people must do every day, turned the laptop into a different, third device and that therefore I had exceeded the number of permitted activations.

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I think this is the first hard evidence of what is causing the error for some TGers. I have a stable set-up for both my laptop and PC but I charge my phone from the laptop and it acts as a media device and I connect my tablet (ditto) to my PC. Neither in/out operation has ever tricked the Xara lockware.

Acorn

With the possible exception of the Windows OS, I don't think that I have any other software that feels the need to phone home every time I use it to check if I have loaded it up on another computer. I really don't like the idea of being presumed to be a software thief! The other paid software I use, and I have used through many upgrades over many years has issued me with a key/password and that is all.

In all the time I have used, e.g. CorelDRAW it has never been an issue to simply install it on the next latest and greatest computer I buy. Of course I stop using it on the old one because the old one is either too slow, unreliable or disassembled for spares. I still have all my old hard drives and they have occasionally been of use to retrieve some file that has been otherwise lost or corrupted. I have never had an issue with the keys/passwords, ever, nor have I been locked out.

As I pointed out in another thread (http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...P11-once-again!) I think it is a huge mistake for a company to use any system that can erroneously lock legitimate users out and prevent them from using what they have paid for. It hasn't happened to me, but I just think that approach is heavy-handed and draconian.

There are other quite adequate methods of software security. For instance in Australian businesses and government there is software auditing to ensure the right number of licenses have been purchased. In some instances software displays the name of the registered user when starting up. Thing is, you can never stop theft or pilfering and we all pay for that at the checkout. Can we assume that we have already paid for pilferage when buying our Xara software? If so why do we need to have further checkups and lockouts?

I hope that Xara will reconsider their security methods and lighten up on us legit users who are just trying to enjoy learning and using the software, rather than having to worry about whether it is going to kill a project or damage our reputation without warning.

There are other quite adequate methods of software security. For instance in Australian businesses and government there is software auditing to ensure the right number of licenses have been purchased. In some instances software displays the name of the registered user when starting up. Thing is, you can never stop theft or pilfering and we all pay for that at the checkout. Can we assume that we have already paid for pilferage when buying our Xara software? If so why do we need to have further checkups and lockouts?

Government departments and businesses perform software auditing to ensure they know what software is in use on their systems and prevent them being sued or having bad publicity by having improperly licensed, unapproved, pirate or rogue software on their systems.

Many small businesses don't perform these kind of audits and it's well known that some small business environments will turn a blind eye to pirated software. It's true of large companies too - last year it was suggested to me by a manager in a HUGE corporation that I download a hockey version of office onto my computer (when I objected, they thought I was crazy).

While these schemes don't stop dedicated hackers, they do stop the casual copying of software and passing from friend to friend. I suspect that the main user-base of Xara is with the home hobbyist, semi-professional or home business/freelancer, rather than larger organisations, so it's important that Xara prevents casual copying and it's not feasible to rely on in-company audits to police users.

There does seem to be some issue with the Xara protection scheme and I hope that the next release resolves that situation, but I wouldn't expect Magix/Xara to do away with software protection.

Interesting - I plug both a Windows 8.1 and an Android phone into my PC all the time. It does not seem to cause a problem.

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Originally Posted by steve911

Just as a follow on to my original post.

I have no problem with Xara seeking to protect their intellectual copyright but their implementation of this policy has left a lot to be desired creating a lot of unnecessary frustration.

My own problem was that I was frequently getting a pop-up message when starting WD11 telling me that I had exceeded the number of activations even though the hardware of the two installations I had, one on my desktop and one on my laptop, had not changed - or so I thought.

It turned out that the message was being triggered simply by my having plugged my mobile phone into one of the USB ports to recharge it; the software decided that this simple action, something that many people must do every day, turned the laptop into a different, third device and that therefore I had exceeded the number of permitted activations.

Protecting intellectual property rights is fine by me but lets keep in contact with everyday reality guys. ;)

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