Windows 8 Activation Bug - Bitdefender

wkwood

This is a heads up for people upgrading to Windows 8

I recently upgraded to the RTM of Windows 8. I went through quite a bit of hassle not related to BitDefender but like others doing a simple upgrade

from Windows 7 Ultimate to 8 Pro caused me to uninstall and reinstall BitDefender. That wasn't a big issue.

So then comes the Windows Activation. I had Microsoft on the phone for about an hour with their head scratching, so at one point they suggest

disabling my AV. So, I turned off active virus scanning etc. rebooted and viola Windows activation worked with BD Antivirus disabled. I've since re-enabled it and I'm still activated.

So if you see strange errors trying to Activate Windows 8, here's what we did.

From the Main Panel, Click on the cog wheel on Anti-virus, disable both On-Access and Active Virus control. Make sure the on-Access is permanent for now.

Reboot, activate your product and turn these settings back on.

rootkit

Hi

Please follow the steps explained in the article below and send me via PM the generated log file:

http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=29927

If the file is too big to attach it, upload it on

http://www.sendspace.com

or

http://www.mediafire.com

and send me a PM with the download link.

If you were already asked to generate the log file, disregard the message above and just post the ticket ID.

Have a nice day.

wkwood

Hi

Please follow the steps explained in the article below and send me via PM the generated log file:

http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=29927

If the file is too big to attach it, upload it on

http://www.sendspace.com

or

http://www.mediafire.com

and send me a PM with the download link.

If you were already asked to generate the log file, disregard the message above and just post the ticket ID.

Have a nice day.

Christian, like I indicated, I gave a work-around however I can't re-generate the exact conditions again unless I want to un-activate my Windows 8 systems and after going through a ton of issues that are all in Microsoft's court, I'm not doing that again for awhile.

I was posting this

as a note for folks who are upgrading to Windows 8 and using BitDefender. Not only did I uninstall and re-install after my upgrade, I went through a bit of pain in terms of the activation process. I got to the windows 8 activation app and it kept saying, "try again later." So I went through the phone mechanism with the activation team at MSFT. It is supposed to generate 9 numbers for MSFT to give you an activation code over the phone. Instead it gave me "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9." At that point I was escalated over to Tech Support and got the standard tech response "disable anti-virus" actually, they wanted me to remove bit defender, so I just laughed. All I did was disable Anti-Virus checking (all three off switches, one with the "permanently" option), rebooted and viola activation worked. No other changes. After that, turn all the switches back on in the AV panel and I'm back to normal. Actually after the reboot it mysteriously activated, I didn't have to run the activation wizard. The guy from MSFT was also puzzle as well.

If you want to reproduce my situation here's a high level of what was involved:

1) Upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8, not a fresh install of 8.

2) Fix all of the )(*!(@#)* bloody driver issues.

3) Uninstall BD 2013, reboot, re-install BD2013, reboot

4) Attempt activation of your product.

I trust Bitdefender and it's on all of my Windows and Android devices now and having been in Software and Systems Engineering for over 30 years, I can tell you that all software has issues, it's just how you address the problem and work on a solution for your customers is what counts.

rootkit

Hi Will

Thank you for your feedback.

I will try to reproduce the issue using your scenario and I will come back with some conclusions.

Have a lovely day!