1. Administrator's Guide
  2. Software updates

Software Updates & Maintenance RenewalUpdates add new features and fix bugs, and keep the software working when Microsoft releases a new version of Microsoft Excel.

There are two kinds of update:

  • Major updates include new features and important bug fixes.
  • Minor updates address bug fixes that affect only a few customers or special situations.

The software periodically checks for updates using your internet connection and tells you when a major update is available. Minor updates are not announced this way; customers affected are contacted directly by e-mail, or through the crash reporting built in to the software.

Maintenance must be active to download and install an update. See Maintenance.

Maintenance

Maintenance gives you every software update released while it is active. If it expires the software keeps working, but only up to the last version released before the expiry date.

A perpetual license includes one year of maintenance at the initial purchase. Renewing is optional. The registered user is notified by e-mail 30 days before maintenance expires, and again on the day it expires. After expiry you can continue using the software, but you do not receive updates released after that date.

An annual license includes maintenance for as long as the license lasts, and both end together. Renew the license to continue using the software.

See Checking maintenance expiry and renewing.

Updating the software

  • Check your maintenance is active. See Maintenance.
  • If your computer is behind a firewall, open TCP port 443 (HTTPS) for communication to license-server.analyse-it.com.

Analyse-it checks for updates periodically and tells you when one is available. You can also check for one yourself.

When Analyse-it is installed for everyone who uses the computer, updating it replaces the copy everyone shares. Windows asks for administrator rights when the update starts. If you do not have them, ask your administrator to install the update; see Deploying the software.

Important: Analyse-it cannot update itself when it runs from a network location, or when your administrator has turned off updating. It shows a message and stops. See Turning off updates.
  1. Start Microsoft Excel to start Analyse-it.
  2. On the Analyse-it ribbon tab, click Analyse-it, and then click Check for Updates.
  3. Click Check Now.

    The software uses your internet connection to check for updates.

  4. If an update is available:
    • Click Download and Install to install it now.
    • Click Download to keep the installer and install it later.

You are asked to close Microsoft Excel before the update installs. Analyse-it starts again with Excel afterwards, and your license stays activated.

Turning off updates

  • You will need an administrator to make this change on each computer.

When Analyse-it is installed for everyone who uses the computer, anyone with administrator rights on that computer can install an update. Turn updating off when you want to control which version people use, for example on a virtual desktop, or where you install updates yourself.

This does not stop Analyse-it checking for updates and telling people that one is available. It stops the software installing one.

Important: The setting only applies where Analyse-it is installed for everyone who uses the computer. Analyse-it ignores it when the software is installed just for a Windows account, because that copy belongs to the person using it and updating it changes nothing anyone else uses.
Set this registry value on each computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Analyse-it\Analyse-it for Microsoft Excel

Value name DisableUpdates, type REG_DWORD, data 1. Set it to 0, or delete it, to allow updates again.

Use Group Policy Preferences to set it on many computers.

Analyse-it shows a message telling the person to contact their administrator, and does not install the update. Deploy updates yourself; see Deploying the software.

Checking maintenance expiry and renewing

  • Activate the software, so it knows which license to check.

Check the expiry date before you plan an upgrade, or when an update refuses to install.

  1. Start Microsoft Excel to start Analyse-it.
  2. On the Analyse-it ribbon tab, click Analyse-it, and then click Extend Maintenance.
    Your browser opens analyse-it.com/store/maintenance, showing the expiry date and the cost to renew.

Renewed maintenance applies to the licenses covered by your product key. The software detects the change at its next update check.