I’m a longtime user of Comodo Firewall and Antivirus products. The free version has never required a license key. After a recent reinstall, however, I’m seeing a message I’ve never seen before: “You need to activate your license to continue using the product”. The yellow exclamation mark in the system tray won’t go away unless a license key is entered.
Is there no longer a free version of the product? The EULA said the product was free for both personal and noncommercial use, so I don’t understand why I’m not given an option to use the free version. I don’t need the live support or whatever other features come with the non-free version of the product.
There’s still a free version, you just have to wait the 30 days and you’ll get the option to continue with free version. ! is annoying and the only changes o the website version is calling itself CIS Pro
The forum versions available here: Comodo Forum It’s not yet updated with the UI changes but still work fine.
So the warning message about needing to activate my license will persist for 30 days? If so I can live with it. Of course it would be ideal if they could tell people there was a free version, but I understand that companies want users to buy a license. I just wish the difference could be more clearly explained. For example, instead of warning users that we have to activate a license to continue using the product, I would instead display a message explaining the benefits of paying for a license (e.g. live support). Then users can make an informed decision.
Well, my trial period seems to have expired. But instead of giving me the option to stick with a free version, my firewall and antivirus have both been disabled. I thought it was supposed to convert to a free license instead. What’s going on?
There should have been a pop-up like the attached were you get the link to continue with free version. I haven’t noticed any changes other than calling itself Pro so if your still not getting the option after a full reboot, probably advisable just to get 8012 from here: Comodo Forum
EDIT: I myself reverted to 8012 and still works fine. We’ve had confirmation from devs that CIS/CF is still being worked on but no ETA on any bug fix or release.
I don’t generally mind to pay for software, but if I’m offered a freemium version, I consider the differences and personally I don’t need the pro benefits – if Comodo wants money for their services in any case these days, this would be a legitimate move, but it should be communicated clearly
PS: more over the ‘get license key’ link from the activation dialog (Shopping Cart) is not working – Dragon says that website was unreachable…
PS: more over the 'get license key' link from the activation dialog (https://secure.comodo.com/home/purchase.php?) is not working – Dragon says that website was unreachable... :-(
Hi noluck999,
It is fixed, kindly check and let us know your feedback.
For anyone who has my problem (Comodo first tells you to activate, then after a while completely shuts down if you don’t provide a license), I eventually determined that the version of Comodo I downloaded was a trial for the Pro version. I know of no way within the app itself to convert to the free version. In the past, I always downloaded Comodo from one of the pages search engines point to. For example, I might type in “Comodo Firewall”, then click the first result and use the download link. This method always worked until my last installation.
What I didn’t realize is that Comodo Premium is the free version, while Comodo Pro is the paid version. Links to trials for the Pro version are everywhere, but links to the Premium (free) version are much harder to find. The links in the post that Eric Cryptid linked to in the very first reply to my original post are links to the Premium (i.e. free) version. If you have a trial of Pro installed and don’t want to pay for the Pro product, the only fix I’m aware of is to export your settings, uninstall the Pro version, and install the free Premium version, then import your settings again.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of the names; how would a new user know the difference between the “Pro” and “Premium” versions? “Premium” almost by definition implies added functionality over a free version. I couldn’t even find a Comodo page clearly explaining the differences between these two versions.
