How does G-Data licenses work regarding reformat and license transfer to another PC ?

V

VHSMSDOS

Thread author
Hi,

I'm actually thinking about ditching Norton for G-Data.

I love their software, but the only problem is that i don't know how their license activation work. I tend to reformat a lot and change computer once in a while. Do they have an online license management, such as Norton or Trend Micro ?

I'm worried as it says on their website "The number of licence transfers is limited – when the limit is reached the licence is completely blocked, so that no more updates of any kind can be downloaded.", but it does seems outdated since it's from 2014. Not sure it has changed since then...

I'm just asking as i like being in control of a license, or at least knowing that i will work as long as i don't exceed the number of devices in use. I don't like licensing such as HitmanPro, as you have to contact them directly to reset the license.

Thanks a lot ;-)
 

Faybert

Level 24
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 8, 2017
1,318
You can format as many times as you like, you will receive a login when you register G Data for the first time (with the license key), every time you format, just type in your username and password.
 
Last edited:
F

ForgottenSeer 58943

Thread author
Hi,

I'm actually thinking about ditching Norton for G-Data.

I love their software, but the only problem is that i don't know how their license activation work. I tend to reformat a lot and change computer once in a while. Do they have an online license management, such as Norton or Trend Micro ?

I'm worried as it says on their website "The number of licence transfers is limited – when the limit is reached the licence is completely blocked, so that no more updates of any kind can be downloaded.", but it does seems outdated since it's from 2014. Not sure it has changed since then...

I'm just asking as i like being in control of a license, or at least knowing that i will work as long as i don't exceed the number of devices in use. I don't like licensing such as HitmanPro, as you have to contact them directly to reset the license.

Thanks a lot ;-)

I believe you can reinstall as much as you want. I certainly have on some test machines.

Why ditch Norton if you are happy with it? When I bag on Norton it's mostly because we DO see a lot of infections on consumer boxes with Norton, but one must consider the popularity of Norton increases the number of infected machines we see running Norton. It's not like I have ever run into a consumer machine running Emsisoft, GData, Dr.Web or F-Secure.. We haven't ever in fact.. We've only seen a couple running Kaspersky. The vast majority are running Avast/AVG/Trend/Norton/Bit Defender/Microsoft that we run into.. Probably 90% are running one of those that we've ever run into in the last 5 years. Norton alone is running on about 60,000,000 systems.

Also, Norton is often not configured to maximum effectiveness on systems, left on default settings is less than ideal, especially for new/zero day stuff where Norton when dialed up to aggressive is pretty effective. Finally, ANY AV can be blown out by a heavy clicker so Norton isn't the only one that will be overcome by a stupid user. Also remember, Norton is certainly far lighter than G Data, regardless of how light 2018 G Data is, Norton is still going to be lighter and Norton has a legendary firewall. So if you are generally happy with it, why switch? Their Mobile version is one of the best mobile packages out there IMO.

Norton's strengths IMO are it's anti-exploit, anti-phishing and firewall. It vastly exceeds most offerings in these areas. It's firewall is one of the most aggressive I have seen in testing at stopping network attacks and lateral movement within networks by worms and such.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Xtended

New Member
Jan 29, 2019
1
Avoid G Data for the simple reason is Bad Customer Care support. Their Licencing policies are so restrictive you can lose a Legit licence within OS update.. More info here. - G Data Software
From my personal experience the max number of licence transfer is limited to 10. Then you have to reach customer support to reset the counter for single use which will be locked to that particular device.
 

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