The rule
- One code, several PCs at once. Your plan covers 3, 5 or 10 PCs, and every one of them uses the same code. Activate each PC with that code and the email address you bought with.
- A PC beyond your plan’s number is refused. AdFender never switches off a PC you are using to make room for a new one; you choose which PC to free.
- Need more PCs than your plan covers? Buy another plan and activate its code on the new PCs only. Entered on a PC that already has a license, a new code renews that PC’s plan instead of adding PCs. For more than 10 PCs, write to sales@adfender.com.
- All the PCs share one term. A license runs for a year from its first activation on any of your PCs (or from 12 months after purchase, if you never activate it), and every PC on the code shares that end date. Renewing once, from any PC, extends them all: the others pick up the new end date by themselves. A renewal onto a smaller plan carries only as many PCs as it covers; the rest keep working to the old end date. The terms have the detail.
- Reinstalling costs you nothing. Reinstalling AdFender or Windows on the same PC, as often as you like, uses up nothing.
Adding or replacing a PC
Adding a PC while your plan has a place free needs nothing special: activate it with the same code and email address. Replacing one means freeing the old PC’s place first.
If the old PC still works, open AdFender on it and choose Deactivate this PC in its Settings. The place is free straight away; activate the new PC with the same code.
If the old PC is dead or lost, email support@adfender.com with your code and tell us which PC it was. We free its place, and the new PC can then activate with the same code.
The new PC can use AdFender’s free 14-day trial until we reply. If that PC has already used its trial, say so in your email.
How many different PCs, over the code’s life
A code can be used on twice as many different PCs as its plan covers: 6 on the 3 PCs plan, 10 on the 5 PCs plan and 20 on the 10 PCs plan. That leaves plenty of room for replacing and rebuilding PCs. Going back to a PC the code has been on before does not count again. If a code reaches this limit, AdFender says so and points you to support. If you reach it while replacing or rebuilding PCs, write to us and we will review it.
Renewing starts the count again. Your renewal code has its own allowance, and the PCs using your old code move onto it, up to the number of PCs the renewal covers, so the new count begins with the PCs you are using today rather than every PC the old code was ever on. If the renewal covers fewer PCs than you are using, the ones it has no room for keep working on the old code until its end date.
“License not active on this PC”
AdFender shows this when this PC does not currently hold one of the code’s places: support freed its place at your request, or a significant hardware change has made it look like a different PC. If a place is free, activating again takes it. If every PC on your plan is in use, free one first, as described above. A PC you deactivated yourself says This PC is deactivated instead, and its Activate this PC button takes a free place the same way.
What counts as the same PC
AdFender recognizes a PC by a device identifier. Reinstalling Windows or AdFender does not change it, which is what makes reinstalling free. A significant hardware change can make AdFender see a different PC; the license then stops working there until you activate it again, and that activation counts as a new PC.
If AdFender asks to be activated again after a hardware change, activate it with the same code and email address. If that is refused and you think it should not be, write to us — we would rather sort it out than have you buy a license you already own.
Older one-PC codes
A code bought before these plans, including one exchanged when you upgraded from AdFender 2.x, covers one PC at a time and can be used on 3 different PCs over its life. Everything else above applies to it too. When it is time to renew, you renew onto one of the current plans, which start at 3 PCs.
On earlier versions of AdFender, going back to a PC you had already used could still count again, so a long-standing customer may have a code that shows more PCs used than they really have. Write to us and we will sort it out.
If you think the count is wrong
Tell us at support@adfender.com. A code that reports every place in use, or its limit reached, when that does not match your PCs is something we can look at and put right. Include the email address you bought with and, if you have it, the order number from your receipt.
Finding your code
Your activation code is in the order-confirmation email from orders@adfender.com. If you no longer have it, look up your order and, while your license is active, we will send the code to the address you bought with. Activation steps are on their own page.
Not sure whether the problem is the license at all? Ads are still showing covers the other reasons AdFender can look inactive.