Silly question, but will upgrading to a new OS be seen as a new device? What about a system wipe with a fresh Win11? Will bit defender know its the same computer?
Hello.
As far as i know, if you plan to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11, the new Windows 11 will not be seen as a new device in Bitdefender Central.
BUT, if you plan to do a fresh install of Windows 11, if i were you, i would do the steps below.
First, i would remove the device from the device list in Bitdefender Central, by following these steps:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2795/
Next, i would uninstall Bitdefender on the device, by following these steps:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2791/
Next, i would do a fresh install of Windows 11.
Finally, i would install Bitdefender on the device, by following these steps:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/28558/
Maybe @Alexandru_BD, who works for Bitdefender, can give you more insights on this matter.
Regards.
Hello,
If you wipe the system clean and install the OS fresh, obviously Bitdefender will also be removed, so you'll have to reinstall it, just like any other software you may have had on that device. But you won't be losing your antivirus subscription, since this will still run in your Central account independently of that, so all you have to do after a fresh Windows install is to access your Central account, and perform a fresh installation of Bitdefender on that device from there. Like Gjoksi mentioned, it's important to remove the device that was running on Windows 10 previously (even if it's basically the same device that you'll continue to use), to free up the slot and make room for the new installation, because even though you will do a system wipe and uninstall the antivirus from that device, it will still occupy a slot in Central. The links shared by Gjoksi cover all the steps required.
NOTE: after installing Windows 11, you will notice that under the device information section in Central, the OS version will still display 10.0.22631 or something similar. This happens because that's the actual build of Windows 11.
Regards
