Raymond.CC Blog

After publishing an article about the lightest antivirus a week ago, I got a request from a commenter (AV) to test on Norman products memory usage as well. Since Norman is a shareware, I test the 30 days trial version. To test the Norman 30 days trial, I’ll have to request for a 30 days trial key or else it wouldn’t work. So I entered some of my information in the request form, submitted it and within seconds I received a trial key in my email together with the download link to the installation file.

After playing around with Norman on my desktop, somehow the 30 days Norman Security Suite trial subscription became one year! I thought it might be a mistake so I tested it on my laptop, following the exact steps which I did on my desktop to replicate the “problem”. I was really surprised that it was no mistake because the Norman that was installed on my laptop also turned from 30 days trial license to 365 days! No crack, patch, hack, keygen or promotion required. It is very easy and I wonder whether Norman did it on purpose…



Norman ASA was founded on October 1, 1984 (more than 20 years ago) and is active within the field of data security, with products for antivirus (virus control), personal firewall, antispam, encryption, antispyware, and parental control. Norman’s head office is based in Norway, but the company has several offices in other countries. On December 17, 2007, Norman released their next generation software – Norman Security Suite. There are 4 products categorized in Norman Security Suite.

1. Parental Control ($52.14)
- Block access to unwanted web site categories
- Block all web sites except approved sites
- User profiles customizable
- Time limit Internet access

2. Personal Firewall ($52.16)
- Hacker Protection
- Stateful Inspection
- Advanced log utility
- Two-way traffic control

3. Antivirus & Antispyware ($67.80)
- Protects computer against virus and spyware
- Rootkit protection
- Protective screensaver

4. Total Security ($85.19)
- Integrates all 3 products above into one.

Enough of the introduction, let’s get back to the story. Like I mentioned, I was testing the 30 days trial version of Norman Security Suite and miraculously it turned into a 365 days license. Below are the few simple steps I went through to get a 1 year Norman license.

1. Go to this page to request for a trial key. Enter your Name and E-mail, select your Country and Usertype, check Norman Security Suite and click Submit Form button.

2. Check your email that you’ve entered earlier and you should get an email from Norman Web (info@mail.norman.no). Record down the authentication key.

3. Go through step 1 and 2 again but using a different E-mail address. Record down the second authentication key.

4. Download full version Norman Security Suite and install.

5. During installation, you’ll be prompted to enter a license key. Enter the either key that you’ve received from Norman.

6. Once installation has completed, run Norman from system tray bar, select Install and Update from left pane and click License Wizard. Enter the other license key and click Finish. Check the “Subscription expires” info. If it still shows that it will expire within one month, keep switching the first and second license keys in License Wizard. Eventually you’ll see that the subscription date has been extended to one year ahead.

In short, all I need to do is to enter 2 different 30 days Norman trial license number to the program. To test whether will Norman still work after the 30 days trial period, I set my system date to 2 months ahead and the subscription expires information still shows next year. I then set it to a date after the expiry date and now the it shows “Expired”. Will Norman fix this bug in their Security Suite software? Let’s wait and see…