Installing Win10 feature updates and impact on other apps

[BobArch2]

If you are using ShadowProtect or Foxit PhantomPDF I would recommend that you deactivate the licenses before installing the new version of Windows 10 (1809)

ShadowProtect

After installing feature updates of Windows 10 (like the pending version 1809 to be released in October), ShadowProtect will think that it is installed on a new PC and will consider itself to be a trial version. In this scenario, if you attempt to activate the app you may get the error message that there are no activations remaining for the product key.

Here is a link to the StorageCraft article outlining more details.

This type of issue started occurring when Windows 10 was first released in 2015. I was caught up in the problem with the initial release of Win10 and a couple of the subsequent feature updates … as were thousands of other users. Each time it happened it was necessary to contact Tech Support to get them to deactivate the license at their end. I guess Tech Support has learned of the onerous task this has caused them and have provided a means for the end-user to complete the deactivation process on line. The above link has a section on Resolution by using the Request Help page. You need to have an account in order to login in and start the process. Easy and faster than contacting Tech Support.

Foxit PhantomPDF

Before I acquired the Foxit product in January of this year, I used licensed copies of Adobe Acrobat for many years. Acrobat also suffered from a license issue when major updates to the O/S was performed. I was using Acrobat 10 and decided that it was too expensive to continue going the Adobe upgrade route. I dumped Acrobat and acquired Foxit PhantomPDF (thanks to some Lounger’s recommendations). Based on my license experiences with ShadowProtect and Adobe Acrobat, I posted a query on the Foxit user forum.

Their suggestion was to deactivate the license before reinstalling an O/S update as outlined in the above posting. I have elected to deactivate the license even before performing a feature updates.

I do have lots of other licensed apps but only the above two have, in my opinion, cause for concern. YMMV.

It should be noted that this issue also affects previous versions of Win10 feature updates. If you are still on 1709 and are trying to update to 1803, you will be impacted.

I hope this helps other ShadowProtect and Foxit PhantomPDF users.