Two years ago Kaspersky China gave out 50,000 6 months Kaspersky Antivirus license for free and there is a limitation that the license key can only be used to activate the chinese version of KAV. No problem on that because I managed to figure out how to bypass that limitation by first disabling the self-protection and modify both the language folder and also the registry. It works but when Kaspersky found out, they implemented stronger protection against changing of language for the GUI and even the Shift+F12 on later versions. They did not remove the feature but instead they made a stronger protection for it.
In Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 11, the default language is in German and if you change the SkinSwitchDisabled registry key to enable the Shift+F12 which I’ve advised on my previous post, you will definitely get the License: error! problem.
Clicking on that will open up License management window telling you that “The application should be reinstalled“.
Trying to reactivate with the same key will only tell you that “This license is already in use“. At first I didn’t want to waste any more time on researching whether it is still possible to change the language from German to English but after reading a comment by whatthe that some Koreans managed to do it, I’ve decided to give it another try and am glad that I managed to do it again.
I noticed that changing any of the language files or registry value will instantly cause the license error problem. The first thought that came to my mind was Kaspersky probably maintains a list of MD5 hashes to make sure that the files are not modified and once they are changed it will ask to reinstall the application. Having the same MD5 hashes on two different files is possible but it’s not easy and there are limitations so that is out of the question. I failed to find the list of MD5 hashes so I had to think of another way.
Looking at file name Kaspersky_CBE11.msi suddenly struck me that I should try editing the MSI file to see what is in there. As far as I know, there is a free tool by Microsoft called ORCA which can be used to edit the MSI file but I prefer to use InstEd instead. After spending an hour playing around Kaspersky_CBE11.msi’s database table with InstEd, I finally discovered how to permanently switch the language for Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 11 from German to English without getting the license error or asking you to reinstall the application. Instead of just uploading the modified Kaspersky_CBE11.msi, I personally think that teaching you all how to do it would be more beneficial.
1. Download and install InstEd.
2. Right click on Kaspersky_CBE11.msi and select InstEd It! which will open Kaspersky_CBE11.msi with InstEd. If you don’t have Kaspersky_CBE11.msi file, you can get it from any of the links below.
HotFile MediaFire FileSonic FileServe RapidShare FileFactory
3. At the Tables tab, click on Registry.
4. You will need to change from de-DE-xcbild to en at Value column for Localization, LocalizationList and Ins_Localization names. One easy way to do it is to sort according to Value by clicking at the Value once. Then press CTRL+F to bring up the Find box and type de-DE-xcbild followed by clicking on the Find Next button. You should see all 3 names (Localization, LocalizationList, Ins_Localization) together.
5. When you have finished changing from de-DE-xcbild to en for Localization, LocalizationList and Ins_Localization, click on the File at menubar and select Save.
6. Now run the Kaspersky_CBE11.msi to install Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 11 and activate it with the key that you got from ComputerBild. If you haven’t done so, you get refer to this article on how to get it. The installation will still be in German but once it reaches the activation part, everything is in English from there on.
If Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 11 is already installed, all you have to do is uninstall it and then reinstall using the modified Kaspersky_CBE11.msi. Do note that the Sidebar Kaspersky Gadget won’t be showing correctly after changing to English interface but I don’t think it is important because they are only shortcuts and eats up unnecessary memory.
To bloggers/webmasters/forum posters: Hours are spent on researching and I would appreciate if you at least link back to this article if you’re going to post this tip on your website.
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