Very rarely we get a full 1 year license for free on popular antivirus such as Kaspersky. As far as I know, there were a few 6 months license promotion on and off but as for a full year, the first time was from China Kaspersky forum, followed by Barclays offer (2 years), then the Windows 7 launch party. Today I got an email Nisith informing me that currently there is an on going offer that allows anyone to obtain a one year Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 license for free!
This is a Chinese promotion and you can only use the activation code to activate the Chinese version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. The activation fails if you try to use the code on the English installer. The web page to obtain the license says that the promotion will end in 25 days but I have a feeling that it will not last long because there are a few methods which I’ve discovered on how to switch the Chinese interface to English which is now widely known. Simply follow the few simple steps below on how to get your free Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 activation code valid for 1 year worth $59.95.
1. Visit http://song.kaba365.com/
2. Enter your email twice at the 2 boxes and click on the button.
3. A new window will open and you have to key in the exact 5 digits you see on the window to verify that this request is legitimate.
Then clicking the button will show your personalized 20 character license key.
Now you’ve got your Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 license. If you can read Chinese and don’t mind having a Chinese version of Kaspersky on your computer, then go ahead and download the Chinese installer from the link below.
http://download.kaba365.com/kaspersky/kis11.0.1.400zh-Hans-CN.zip
Installing should be quite easy since most software requires you to click Next until it is completed. However since this installer is in Chinese, you can follow the step-by-step screenshot on how to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 Chinese edition.
If you want to switch to English interface, the first thing you must do is to turn off or disable Kaspersky Self-Defense. You can do that by right clicking on the Kaspersky tray icon at notification area and select the seventh option which will open the Settings window.
Then click on the buttons by following the numbers which will disable the Self-Defense in Kaspersky Internet Security 2011.
Next, click the Windows start button and type regedit in the “Search programs and files” bar. Right click on regedit.exe that is shown at the start menu and select “Run as administrator”. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\KasperskyLab\protected\AVP11\environment\
Look for SkinSwitchDisabled, double click on it to edit and change the Value data from 1 to 0 and click OK. (If you get “Error Editing Value, Cannot edit SkinSwitchDisabled: Error writing the value’s new contents”, it means you did not disable Kaspersky Self-Defense).
Now open Kaspersky program and simultaneously press SHIFT+F12 which will instantly switch the interface to English edition. Do note that the language interface change is not permanent. Every time after rebooting your computer or restarting Kaspersky will require to press SHIFT+F12 to use the English interface.
For more reference, you can refer to my previous article on how to switch from Chinese to English interface in Kaspersky. There are 3 methods on that article and I would say that the first method (Shift+F12) is the best. There is another one which is renaming folders from EN to zh-Hans-CN and zh-Hans-CN to EN in C:\Program Files\Kaspersky Lab\???????? 2011\Skin\loc\ but it is causing the error “This application should be reinstalled”.
Do note that you have to activate this KIS2011 license key within a week or else it will get deactivated. It means this free license has only 1 week of shelf life to prevent people from harvesting tons of keys and make money by selling them as long as they can. This free offer from Kaspersky seemed to be public and NOT leaked which means you won’t risk your free Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 getting deactivated after a few days.