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I have 3 PCs protected in my wsac. I recently upgraded 2 of my machines to windows 8. Since then they both are seen duplicated in my console taking away my two free licenses. And I have no idea which of the duplicated is the functional one.

 

Dtouch, 

 

Have you tried to do this:

 


  1. Log into your Account Console
  2. Go to PC Security
  3. Deactivate the affected PC's. (Both copies if you need to)
  4. Reboot both affected computers (WSA will remove itself since you deactivated.)
  5. Install WSA on both computers, and allow it to complete the initial scan
  6. Log into your Account Console again
  7. Go to PC Security
  8. Change the drop down to Deactivated PC's (If the drop down is not visible, refresh the page until it is)
  9. Re-Activate both of the affected PC's (If they are listed twice, only reactivate one of each)
Hopefully this will work... let us know if it does!
Yes i did that.. but instead of deactiavting all..

there is a way around. Run a scan in all machines.

Click on webconsole item and look at the about tab and you will see the last scan time. Only one of the duplicated item seem to update it. So deactivate the other!!



Reboot.. and one  machines automatically reinstalled and ran a scan..

I had to reinstall the other..

But no changes appeared in webconsole.. the ones remained earlier were intact and updating.

But my deactiavated pc section is a mess now. There are so many duplicates out there. If there is a way to clean it up, it would have been great.
I am  not sure if there is a way to clean out the deactivated list... but I am glad that you have the current active PC list corrected.

 

Duly noted on how you ended up going about it as well.. Thank you!
Has anyone else had this occur after the upgrade to Windows 8?  I would be very interested in hearing more about this if it is a common issue following a Windows 8 upgrade.
I have seen it happen in other instances - the seat count is used when changing operating systems. Installing WSA on virtual environements also counts against the seat count.
Thank you Mike!  I greatly appreciate the additional feedback on this!
I have seen this happen on my Win XP computer after a full reformat.
@ wrote:

I have seen this happen on my Win XP computer after a full reformat.

Yes, so have I.  I didn't know that from an OS upgrade without uninstalling WSA first that it could happen though.. that was new to me.  At least it is pretty easy to reclaim the lost seat through the Console.
No problem - and if you need help ever, I can remove it from the back-end as well.
So Mike what is the proper procedure when you do an OS reinstall Joe said it's tied to Hardware do you have to remove WSA from the PC and remove from the online console or when you are installing the OS after a clean reformat just make sure you use the same computer name? Example: Daniel-PC

 

TIA,

 

Daniel
I think I can answer a part of that, as I know a little more about this version:

 

For those with the Best Buy Subscription Software, in theory if the WSA is uninstalled (while the computer is connected to the internet) the license seat is supposed to be removed from use so it should remove itself from the Console.  After the OS re-install, simply reinstall the WSA as normal.  The seat should be picked back up by the Console on its own.

 

If I am wrong on that, please correct me  :S

 

If that is correct, at least in theory, then machine name will not really matter, although it might leave a "Deactivated PC" listed if you use a different one.
OK this is what I have:

 

May 31, 2012 it was Deactivated as I did a clean reinstall.
TH, Did you uninstall WSA prior to the clean format and OS install?  
No I deactivated before reinstall of WSA on the clean OS which makes me think I didn't have to as I used the same PC name..

 

TH
So your results are really like the original post.  If you had not deactivated the first installation from the Console, you would have had two active PC's of the same name after the clean install of WSA on the clean OS.

 

That would make it not entirely hardware specific: both the machine hardware and name, as well as something else, is being used.  Maybe the "installed since date" of the WSA itself plays a factor as well.  

 

On a clean install of the OS and WSA, the installed since date would obviously be date of the clean install.  In the case of the OS upgrade to Windows 8, the installed since date recorded by windows could be affected.. 

 

Just wild guesses on my part
Now my deactivated pc section has many duplicates. Can they be removed?

It is like there are deactivated and activated items of the same PC's . Do they in anyways can clash the functioning of active licenses?
@dtouch wrote:

Now my deactivated pc section has many duplicates. Can they be removed?

It is like there are deactivated and activated items of the same PC's . Do they in anyways can clash the functioning of active licenses?

I do not think it will clash in any way whatsoever with the active license seats.  As far as having them removed completely, I think that would require back end assistance from a MOD or from a Trouble Ticket.
Once we get and Official proper procedure it would be nice to make it into the Tribal Knowledge Base. ;)

 

TH
@ wrote:

Once we get and Official proper procedure it would be nice to make it into the Tribal Knowledge Base. ;)

 

TH



Yes it would!  Obviously there are multiple ways, some of which cause the duplication.  While machine duplication can easily be worked around, it would be nice to know definately how to avoid it to begin with.  ;)
The uninstall is supposed to take the used seat away. I have seen multiple instances of seats being used with the same pc name. For example, I could install on my home PC and name it MIKE-PC and if I named one of my VMs MIKE-PC, it would not replace the other one, but create an entirely new/separate entry.
dtouch - I see that you have 7 seats being used and 3 of which, are on an identical name. Want to Send me a Private Message with the names of the machines you are currently using and I can deactivate the older instances that haven't checked in as recently?
PM coming up! 🙂
@ wrote:

The uninstall is supposed to take the used seat away. I have seen multiple instances of seats being used with the same pc name. For example, I could install on my home PC and name it MIKE-PC and if I named one of my VMs MIKE-PC, it would not replace the other one, but create an entirely new/separate entry.

Mike, 

 

On the uninstall taking the seat away, will that completely delete the machine from the listings, or will that machine be listed in the Deactivated list?

 

(Just trying to understand the whole behavior)
It should remove it from the list, when you manually "Deactivate" the machine, it then appears as deactivated in the console. I will confirm this tomorrow.
@ wrote:

It should remove it from the list, when you manually "Deactivate" the machine, it then appears as deactivated in the console. I will confirm this tomorrow.

Thanks Mike!  That is about what I would expect, but it will make things a little easier for me to have a better answer than my own assumptions  ;)

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