I want to buy Vegas Pro 18 but before I buy it I want to know this

Peter-Riding wrote on 5/30/2021, 1:17 AM

Before re-formatting your PC open Vegas then go to Help > Deactivate the software on this PC.

Then when you re-install you will be asked to enter your license details and this will reactivate within seconds. If you forget to have done that you will have to contact Magix and thats not instant but it is do-able.

You should save your personalised preferences before re-formatting so that you can simply paste in the relevant settings e.g.

Local Disk (C:) > Users > Your name > AppData > Roaming > Vegas > Render Templates

Have a poke around the various AppData folders relevant for Vegas.

Vegasaur has functionality which lets you export and import various settings easily. Ideal with a re-formatted PC or if wanting to copy the settings into a second PC

diverG wrote on 5/30/2021, 1:18 AM

No problem. Register with magix and remember your email address and password used to register. You can have 2 instances of vp installed on say desktop & laptop. If you need to reformat and forget to return your licence then log into magix and you can control licences from there. You can also retrieve your licence number. The key is to remember email address & password used to register if first place. Plenty of info on forum,just use search facility.

Bear in mind vp19 may be released in August. If you buy vp18 just before release you get upgrade to vp19 for free.

Pete wrote on 5/30/2021, 1:54 PM

Just need to deactivate it on your computer before you format it, or if you forget you can always go into your online account and deactivate it from there.

Also, if you're in no rush we may be seeing Vegas Pro 19 in a few months.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 5/30/2021, 2:26 PM

@raanstoker-orellanaarriaza Better to deactivate from the Vegas Help dropdown running on the computer before reformatting. Doing it by logging into your Magix account works but it limits you to how often you can do it that way; I only do it that way as a last resort or if I notice something screwy like the same computer being listed twice and consuming 2 licenses.

john_dennis wrote on 5/30/2021, 5:06 PM

"If in the future I have to format my Computer"

Save a system image after you install Windows, then at various points as you install application software. I only reformat and reinstall when I change hardware every four (or now, with COVID-19 induced hardware shortages, who knows how many) years. The systems that I run today are all in-place upgrades from Windows 7 Professional except for my laptop, which came with Windows 10 Professional.

Free Application: AOMEI Backupper

There's no good reason to constantly reinstall Windows, etc. unless you want a career as a workstation tech.

Peter-Riding wrote on 5/31/2021, 1:18 AM

I've had Acronis since I switched to Crucial SSD's a few years ago but now I prefer to do a completely clean re-install occasionally. This can be quicker if there is some gremlin in the works that has also found its way into the backup and may otherwise take hours of researching and testing.

It is now possible to have a completely clean latest edition of Windows 10 to download and install from the Cloud, as described in full here:

https://richardtech.net/how-to-reinstall-windows-10-cloud-recovery/

You can instead use a USB stick if you prefer:

https://richardtech.net/how-to-reinstall-windows-10/

The 2nd link also tells you how to find your Product Key should you need to by using a simple script.

I use the Cloud method. I have not needed to find the key as Microsoft automatically recognises it even on a completely clean re-install. I've done it on 4 PC's recently.

I do save all relevant programs (+ preferences in AppData etc) anyway within Google Drive as that may be quicker and easier than fresh downloads. The particularly relevant ones for me other than Vegas are various Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Bridge, Capture One Pro, Breeze Downloader Pro, and to a lesser extent various Affinity apps. Outlook 2016 Exchange just re-downloads from my hosting company.

I now have Google Drive set on large USB 3 sticks with pre-specified drive letters instead of on internal drives as there is then no need to re-download the Google Drive content on a re-install.

lan-mLMC wrote on 5/31/2021, 2:10 AM

Don't worry about it at all.

Ross-Jackson wrote on 6/2/2021, 3:54 AM

Pete

Thank you for the information about de-activation on a computer no longer to be in use. I have upgraded from a laptop to a Desktop just to use Movie Studio 17. I Installed the programme on the Desktop, but until now had not deactivated from the laptop. Have now done so. All still works well on the Desktop.

Regards

Ross

studio-4 wrote on 6/10/2021, 10:35 PM

I've had Acronis since I switched to Crucial SSD's a few years ago but now I prefer to do a completely clean re-install occasionally. This can be quicker if there is some gremlin in the works that has also found its way into the backup and may otherwise take hours of researching and testing.

It is now possible to have a completely clean latest edition of Windows 10 to download and install from the Cloud, as described in full here:

https://richardtech.net/how-to-reinstall-windows-10-cloud-recovery/

You can instead use a USB stick if you prefer:

https://richardtech.net/how-to-reinstall-windows-10/

The 2nd link also tells you how to find your Product Key should you need to by using a simple script.

I use the Cloud method. I have not needed to find the key as Microsoft automatically recognises it even on a completely clean re-install. I've done it on 4 PC's recently.

I do save all relevant programs (+ preferences in AppData etc) anyway within Google Drive as that may be quicker and easier than fresh downloads. The particularly relevant ones for me other than Vegas are various Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Bridge, Capture One Pro, Breeze Downloader Pro, and to a lesser extent various Affinity apps. Outlook 2016 Exchange just re-downloads from my hosting company.

I now have Google Drive set on large USB 3 sticks with pre-specified drive letters instead of on internal drives as there is then no need to re-download the Google Drive content on a re-install.

These are excellent resources—thanks! I used to completely fdisk Windows periodically when I was all-PC back in the 1990s, and may need to do this someday. Also, we bought a brand-new, branded laptop (I think an Asus or Lenovo) from Newegg, and after a while it kept asking to authenticate its copy of Windows (we never did anything weird with this computer), so the product key retrieval-information is good to know!