Information about Upgrades

Minor updates are free. Major upgrades are paid. Forever upgrades are forever.

This the short form of our upgrades policy and is valid for all our products.

Minor updates are "point" updates, for instance from 5.6 to 5.7, or from 1.0 to 1.1, or indeed from 1.0 to 1.9. You will never have to pay for these updates.

Major upgrades are "full" upgrades, for instance from 1.0 to 2.0, from 1.1 to 2.0, or from 3.1 to 4.8. These upgrades you need to pay for.

You can obviously continue using any version you own as long as you want to. They will never expire!

If you purchase a forever upgrade, you are entitled to all new versions of the product. You will never again be asked for an upgrade fee.

We hope that with this scheme, we can accommodate everybody. Some people hate upgrade fees but are prepared to pay for the true cost of the ongoing product development; they can choose the product + forever upgrade option.

Other people just want to get the product to a specific job, they don't want to pay for upgrades they won't use. Yet other people don't want to spend too much money on the initial purchase and see how things go.

You can cross-grade between a single member of the A Better Finder Series to the entire series by purchasing the forever upgrade to the Package deal.

I don't want to upgrade, but I have already installed the latest version and I can't get back!

Don't panic! You do not need to buy an upgrade if you don't want to.

Simply download an old version of the tool. Don't forget to uninstall the new version before re-installing the old!

What are "new" and "old-style codes"?

Customers who have purchased products out of the A Better Finder series before the 8th Feb. 2001, have "old-style" codes. Everybody else has new style codes.

Why are upgrades not simply free?

Customers want their products to keep pace with their needs. They also want the products to remain compatible with new operating system versions.

This means that developers must spend time enhancing programs, migrating their code to new operating system versions, etc.

Developers' time is limited and not free. Just like everybody else, we have families to feed.

Paid upgrades make us spend a lot of effort on making large improvements on our products that can justify the price tag. This benefits you, the user.

If you do not agree with paid upgrades, you can either get the product and the forever upgrade and thus pay for the real price of the ongoing development that you want, or you can simply not buy the upgrade.

I want to upgrade to version N+1, but I do not have version N. Can I still upgrade?

Yes, you can. We only require you to have previously purchased the software from us. The version number doesn't matter.

I want to order an upgrade but I can't find my previous unlock code!

Don't worry. You don't need the previous unlock code to order. Simply order the upgrade. We'll find your previous purchase.