michaeldiemer1 wroteWhy can I not activate my Notion 5 on Windows 7? I realize it's an old operating system, but for various reasons I prefer it over later windows versions. I recently reinstalled windows 7, and now I can't use notion, which I paid for and have a valid license for. That ain't right!

I can't use Notion 6 as it requires windows 10, which I don't like and will not use. I also don't want to use the mobile version as it appears to be cloud-based.

I can use Musescore of course, but I prefer Notion as I have used it for years and have a good workflow with it. At my rather advanced age, learning a new software program is not how I need to spend my time.

There are two possible solutions, one of which should work . . .

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

(1) Contact PreSonus Technical Support for help. If it's possible to do what you want to do, they can tell you how to do it.

(2) I found this technical support workaround in the PreSonus Knowledge Base:

"As of February 2022, it is now necessary to enable the TLS 1.2 protocol on Windows 7 in order to do an online activation of PreSonus Software. Here is how that you can activate a supported version of Notion 6 on Windows 7 now."

[NOTE: This is for NOTION 6, so if it works you can upgrade, but check with PreSonus Technical Support before doing this . . . ]

Online activation of NOTION 6 on Windows 7 (PreSonus Technical Support)

[NOTE: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 is the successor to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) used by endpoint devices and applications to authenticate and encrypt data securely when transferred over a network. TLS protocol is a widely accepted standard used by devices such as computers, phones, IoTs, meters, and sensors." This is needed to access the PreSonus software product activation system, and it apparently was not included in Windows 7, hence the need to add it to a Windows 7 machine to install and activate NOTION 6 . . . ]

[CAUTION: This workaround involves making some changes and updates to the Windows System Registry, so be careful when doing it. Ideally, you should create a bootable full-backup of your Windows 7 Pro machine before doing this, so if there are problems you can revert using the bootable full-backup. Doing a bootable full-backup for Windows 7 Pro requires third-party backup software and an external hard drive, which with some smart shopping costs about $200 USD. I always recommend having a bootable full-backup before doing certain types of activities on a computer. This is easy to do on the Mac with SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) and LaCie external drives, where the "orange" LaCie external USB hard drive (5TB) is about $170 USD at Amazon and the free version of SuperDuper! works nicely, although I purchase a license to help the developer. The full description is "LaCie Rugged 5TB Portable External HDD - USB 3.0/2.0 Compatible, Shock/Dust/Rain Resistant for Mac & PC, Orange". It needs a USB connection on your Windows 7 Pro computer, and there are less expensive external hard drive that will work with a Windows machine, but I like LaCie. The LaCie "orange" external drive comes with a USB-C cable, so you will need a USB 3 cable, which you can get separately. The end of the cable that connects to the LaCie "orange" drive is unusual, so it's not so simple as USB to USB. I had to get a "CableCreation Short USB3.0 Hard Drive Cable 1FT, USB 3.0 A to Micro B Cable 5Gbps Data, USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Cable Works for WD Toshiba Seagate Hard Drive Galaxy S5 and More 0.3m" cable to connect it to my 2013 Apple iMac. It says it comes with a USB 3 cable, but it came with a USB-C cable, and my 2013 iMac does not have a USB-C port. This is what happens when you are using a computer that's 10+ years old. Fortunately, I know how to find this stuff, so I deal with it effectively . . . ]

LaCie Rugged 5TB Portable External HDD - USB 3.0/2.0 Compatible, Shock/Dust/Rain Resistant for Mac & PC, Orange (Amazon.com)

USB 3.0 to Micro B Cable 5Gbps Data (Amazon.com)

THOUGHTS

Apple and Microsoft continually update their operating systems, but it tends to be less overwhelming on the Apple side, although a few years ago Apple started making their own processor chips and stopped using Intel processors, so all my Intel Macs will be obsolete sooner or later . . .

I do everything on the Mac, and I have Apple computers from 2008, 2010, and 2013 that run various versions of NOTION and Studio One Professional, as well as a virtual festival of VST and VSTi effects and plug-ins . . .

Yet, all my Mac computers have Intel processors, and they will stop supporting new versions of macOS sooner or later, but so what . . .

My newest Mac is running macOS Catalina (10.15.7) released in 2019 and is about a decade newer than Windows 7 Pro, which was released in 2009 . . .

I am planning to get a 2019 Apple 27" iMac from Other World Computing (Macsales.com), and it runs the current version of macOS (Sonoma) and all the VST and VSTI effects and plug-ins, which I verified on another 2019 Mac (same model and so forth) . . .

There are a few differences in the Graphic User Interface (basically "Aqua") but nothing too dramatic.

I help someone with a recent Windows computer, and everything changes frequently to the extent that after starting work in Windows as a third-party software engineer in 1987 I cannot make sense of it easily; so I appreciate your frustration . . .

The person got an 18-month subscription to Microsoft 365 when purchasing the HP laptop, and it's now renewing, but after not using the HP laptop for several months, everything is different and needs to be reinstalled . . .

Add to this a strong desire not to use the "cloud", and it's a huge hassle . . .

[NOTE: My plan is to create a separate Microsoft account to use the "cloud" long enough to upgrade everything and then stop using it. Whether this works is another matter, but it appears to need a Microsoft account on the "cloud". Apple also uses the "cloud", but you can opt-out of the "cloud" stuff. Perhaps this is possible with Windows 11 Pro, so I will call Microsoft . . . ]

SUMMARY

Ideally, one of these solutions will work . . .

Lots of FUN!

P. S. Post a follow-up when you get this working, so other folks can learn how you did it, which will be fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

Thank you Surf Whammy for the detailed reply. I tried the registry fix, but it didn't work. I tried it for Notion 5, and also notion 6, no luck with either.

with Notion 5, I get an error that I cannot connect with the online registry or something. I disabled MSE AV, but that didn't help.

With Notion 6, the error is that I need Windows 10. Lost in a Classic Catch 22 situation.

As for contacting support, I did that awhile back, when I was using Linux, and was trying to get Notion to work on it. Same issue with notion 5, they just won't activate it anymore. guess they can't be bothered with Luddites who just won't get with the program. They did, however, quite graciously give me a free upgrade to notion 6. I was able to install and authorize this on Linux, but it didn't work right. Now I'm back on Windows 7. I tried to upgrade to Windows 10, I really did, like 4 times, but each time my reaction was the same. Nausea, basically.

Looks like my Notion days are over. I'll switch to Musescore. Which of course will require quite a bitr of work to import my scores from Notion. But what the heck, I'm retired and have nothing better to do.

Thanks again for your help, Surf Whammy.

Hi,

For Windows 7, the last version of Notion 6 that will work on it is:

6.6.478

See if you can find that in your downloads section when you log into mypresonus:

Thank you acequantum! That worked. I should have thought of it myself. but then I wouldn't know which version was the last one to work. I will be able to continue to use Notion. so much easier than switching to another product!

Doing a bit of guessing . . .

Since you did the TLS 1.2 update to Windows 7 step and then successfully installed the Windows 7 supported version of NOTION 6, I think the TLS 1.2 update was important . . .

Regardless, it's good you are back in business and are not needing to mess with computer stuff . . .

Lots of FUN!