Expression Web 4 Licensing FAQ

I have a boxed copy of Studio 3 bought directly from Microsoft. That phrase "this is a fully licensed copy" does not appear on my activated copy of Expression Web 3. Furthermore my 3-digits are 618, not 617.

Despite all this, Studio 4 installed and activated just fine (actually it told me it was already activate). V4 now says "fully licences" but the 3-digits are still 618.

It seems that the additional notes above are not complete, at least not for my existing installation of Expression Web 3.

Can I install this product on my laptop and PC at the same time, same licence, or just on my PC (they are both mine and pretty much always stay at home, but I do work away from home now and again)

Thanks

Yes.  Expression Web 4 and Expression Studio 4 can be licensed and activated on, at most, two systems, e.g., a laptop and a desktop, which is exactly your scenario.

Paul Bartholomew

Microsoft Expression Web

We are running Expression Web 3 under our volume licensing agreement. I understand that we should now be entitled to use Expression Web 4. However, I cannot find this product in VLSC. I can find the following though:

- Expression Studio Web Professional 4.0

- Expression Studio Ultimate 4.0

- Expression Encoder Professional 4.0

Is there an ETA for Expression Web 4.0 as a separate product in VLSC?

Please do not bother answering my question of 5th July. I have the answer.

Thanks

Stop! Do not uninstall Expression Web 3 after installing EW4.

I learned the hard way. Once you have installed EW4, do NOT uninstall EW3 -- or so says the tech guy from Microsoft who had to restore my license for EW3 and 4. I had uninstalled EW3 after installing EW4 (and it did recognize the license).

So nobody else makes the mistake I did, here's what transpired and how it was resolved:

Once I uninstalled EW3, EW4 would start, but would not allow me to do anything. Instead it gave me a message that "A licensing error has occurred. Restart your Expression program and try again. If you continue to receive this error message, reinstall your Expression program to make sure that the license installs correctly."

I first tried to repair EW4. At the end of the repair, I got the message with the headline "Install failed."

The message read: "Setup failed to install Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional. Licensing installation failure. Proof-of-purchase was invalid." It told me to "resolve the issue and start Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional setup again." Everytime I start Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional, I get the message I quoted two paragraphs above this one. I then uninstalled Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional and reinstalled it -- with the same result.

When I've tried to reinstall Expression Web 3 from my CD ROM, it rejects the product key. I've typed it correctly, but I get the message "Key is not valid. Verify and enter your product key again."

I obviously need your help. I've looked this up in the Expression Web forums and found a pertinent discussion at  social.expression.microsoft.com/.../52731A69-1358-41D7-A43E-DF22EEE99B55

The bottom line is that I had to visit http://support.microsoft.com and submit a request for assistance -- giving them a credit card, etc. However, as the forum moderator had explained, I was not charged for the technical support since "all of our front-line engineers know that they should not decrement cases that are caused by licensing issues, so you won't be charged" and "We're not going to charge customers to fix an issue caused by a problem in our license store."

The next day a tech support engineer called from India and spent an hour with me repairing the licenses. I had to totally uninstall all versions of Expression Web from the computer. He downloaded a 10 MB license repair file to my computer and had to take over the computer for a bit to run it. I had to download a new copy of EW4 and install it. So far it's running great. The support engineer told me not to uninstall EW3, saying that EW4 might be dependent on EW3. I highly doubt that, but given that the last time I uninstalled EW3 it corrupted the license for EW4, I guess I'll need to leave both versions on the computer. Seems pretty bizarre to me.

I was NOT charged for the tech support.

Anyway, I hope this helps others avoid the problems I ran into. I will say it's pretty darned kind of Microsoft to give a free upgrade to EW4.

"A licensing error has occured. Restart your Expression program and try again. If you continue to receive this error message, reinstall your Expression program to make sure that the license installs correctly."

I am having the same issue.  It worked for 2 weeks and then this error.  All of the programs in the suite will launch but error pops up immediatly and programs close.  I have tried uninstalling reinstalling and even deleting the Expression folders out of the registry.

PLEASE HELP

-Toddney

Re: "NOTE: Please keep your copy of Expression Web 3 and your version 3 product key. Should you need to reinstall Windows or have a hard drive failure, you will need to first install Expression Web 3, then reinstall Expression Web 4."

Well, the RAID array with my copy of Studio3 self destructed (along with a whole bunch of data and other files).  Fortunately my Studio3 key was in my Outlook archives somewhere else.

How do I find a suitable copy of Studio 3 so that I can start the long slow process of rebuilding?

Thanks,

P.S. any ideas on a better storage idea?

I am installingExpression Studio 4 and keep getting  Error 1008- Expecting to find local release notes at go.microsoft.com/fwlink

I called Microsoft and they said that my product Key is a valid liscense  but they can not help me with the install. I did a clean boot. but no luck.  I am not a computer wiz. I am just an old student trying to work on my online web class that I haven't been able to start.

Cathlene,

If you go to support.microsoft.com, there is a link at the bottom of the page that will allow you to contact a support professional. When you do that, they will ask for a credit card to open the case, but that card will not be charged for an issue such as yours.

Jim Cheshire

Microsoft

to Philip and Paul.

Thank you for your post Philip and your answer Paul.

I just asked (twice) the same thing to MS France, and they still confirm that Expression Web is a "mono-licence" and that I am allowed to install it on ONLY ONE station !!!!

Here below the original text in French :

"Merci de nous avoir recontacté.

Nous vous confirmons que votre licence est une licence mono-utilisateur ( vous pouvez l'installer sur un seul poste).

Pour de plus amples informations, n'hésitez pas à nous contacter, nous restons entièrement à votre disposition.

Meilleures Salutations,

Alina Ghinet

L'équipe de Microsoft Store

MSStore.France@msdirectservices.com"

I've EW4 on my desktop PC and I 'd like to install it on my laptop aswell....

So, who's right please ?

Thanks a lot,

Danny

To answer a question on the license agreement--you are allowed to install Expression Web on a home and work computer.

Steve

I have an upgrade version of Expression Web purchased in 2006 as an upgrade from Front Page.  Does this qualify for upgrade to Expression Web 4 if I purchase the version 4 upgrade version?

Thanks.

re: Andrzej Cierpicki

Yes. Owning any previous version of FrontPage or Expression Web qualifies you for the upgrade to the latest version.

I have Expression Web 3 with the '617' in the product license.  I downloaded and installed the EW 4 trial version, which I thought would give me a "fully licensed copy" it.  But when I check "Help - About", I see "This is a Free Copy."  Why didn't I get the licensed version?

I realize the posts above are 2.5 years old now, but I had not heard nor seen anywhere that there was a time limit to the upgrade.

Thank you.