Your Nero software includes certain features that require the activation of a third party patent. The activation of these patents is easy and free of charge. If you choose to activate the patent at a later time, you can still use the respective features, but you will receive periodic reminders that activation needs to occur within 30 days of your initial use of the product. After this 30-day period you must activate the patent technology before you can continue using the corresponding features.

Please check the following points if Nero does not accept your serial number:

• Make sure that the latest update of your Nero version is installed.


• Make sure that you're not having any typing errors.


• Make sure that the correct Nero version is installed on your PC.

You cannot install Nero 9 using a Nero 8 serial number. Nero serial numbers are structured as follows:
Nero 9/Nero Move it/Nero BackItUp 4/Nero MediaHome 4: 9Mxx-xxxx-xxxx-… or 2Mxx-xxxx-xxxx-…
Nero 8: 1K2x-xxxx-xxxx-… or 2K2x-xxxx-xxxx-…
Nero 7: 1Cxx-xxxx-xxxx-… or 4Cxx-xxxx-xxxx-…
Nero 6: 1Axx-xxxx-xxxx-…
Nero 5: 15xx-xxxx-xxxx-…

If Nero does not accept your Nero serial number, please contact our Customer Service team providing your Nero serial number as well as a proof of purchase.

Unfortunately, your license for Nero only allows you to use the Nero suite on one PC at a time. This message most likely indicates that you are attempting to use your Nero-licensed product on more than one PC. Please follow the dialog box in the activation window in order to obtain an additional license for your Nero software at a special discount price.

If more than 30 days have elapsed since your initial use of your Nero software, and you have not yet activated the required patent, you will not be able to use certain features. Though you are able to install these software components without any limitation, you must register them within 30 days of your first usage. After the 30 days have expired, you must activate the patent in order to continue to access the respective features.

Nero Digital is a Codec. Basically the Codec adopts the MPEG-4 standard but has some extensions, e.g. Subtitles, chapter creation, 2 Audio-streams and navigation (soon). It is our reaction to the MPEG-4 Standards but it is 100 % standard compliant, including MPEG-4 Part 10, AVC [Advanced Video Coding or H.264]. According to this, it is a perfect position to use the vantages of the HD Technologie of the next generation, including HD-DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and HD broadcasting. It contains MPEG-4 ASP (Advanced Simple Profile) video as well, like DivX and Apple; MPEG-4 AAC audio like iTunes and 3GP mobile; using the MP4 file container. Compared to the DivX format which uses its own containers, the Codec is technologicaly seen very free – equally opposed to Microsoft, Real and Apple with its own DRM (Digital Rights Management) extensions. In principle, files created with Nero Digital are supported by a wide range of Hardware and Software if the MPEG-4 standard was followed. That is why Nero Digital does extremely fit to the future, especially if you consider that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray together with VC-1 [Windows Media 9] have adopted AVC as obligatory Codecs for the next DVD-Generation.

Please send an e-mail to patent.activation@nero.com and explain the problem in detail. Do not forget to include your Nero software serial number in your e-mail.

You will find the Lightscribe option in the menu "Extras" in Nero StartSmart. If you start Lightscribe by clicking the button, you will get the option "Data label". This option does not allow to create a "full-face" label. To do so close the compilation and start a new compilation. The Lightscribe option is also available in Nero Express and in Nero Cover Designer.

In some cases our servers could be down, or we may have an unusual amount of traffic on our website at the time you have attempted a download. In these instances, all you need to do is try again at a later time that same day. If it's over the weekend and the server is down, wait till the following Monday and we will have the problem resolved. We do provide up to 6 servers to download from. It's unlikely all 6 are down at the same time.
In most cases, the problem is not at our end of the connection. To resolve issues at your end, you should do the following:
- Disable any anti-virus program, Norton Protection or similar programs.
- If you are at work, you may need to approach your IT administrator, as you may have a firewall preventing such downloads.
- Contact your Internet Service Provider.
- Try downloading from another computer.
- Any kind of popup blocker could also cause problems. Please disable them while you download.

Nero fully supports LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling.

LightScribe technology requires four elements:

• LightScribe enabled CD/DVD recorder


• LightScribe compatible CD/DVD


• Nero 7 or Nero 6 Reloaded (Nero 6.6.0.8 or later version installed)


• LightScribe Host Software must be installed. It can be downloaded here

If the LightScribe function does not work, please check the following settings:

• In Windows, go to -Start -Settings -Control Panel -Administrative Tools -Services -LightScribeService Direct Disc Labeling Service
  Right-click on "LightScribeService Direct Disc Labeling Service", choose "Properties", go to "Startup type" and select "Automatic". The display under "Service status" has to be set to "Started".


• In Windows, go to -Start -Settings -Control Panel -Administrative Tools -Local Security Policy -Local Policies -Security Options
  Double-click on the entry "Devices: Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only". Choose the option "Disabled". Confirm this change by clicking on "Apply” and "OK".


• If you use Windows XP Home, please try the following steps:
  Open the "Registry" by clicking on “Start” in Windows, clicking on “Run”, typing in "regedit" into the field "Open" and verifying with "OK".
  Select the path
  "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon"
  Doubleclick the entry "allocatecdroms" and check if the value is set to "0". If not, please set it to "0".
  Stop and restart the service "LightScribe" in the control panel.
  In Windows select -Start -Settings -Control Panel -Administrative Tools -Services
  Now the Lightscribe function should be recognized.
  Please also change a setting of the Lightscribe service:
  Rightclick on the service "Lightscribe", select -Properties -Recovery
  Select the option "restart the service" in the field "first failure". The option "restart service after 1 minute" will now be activated. Confirm this setting with "Apply" and "OK".

Please read chapter 4 of our EULA.

Try adjusting your firewall settings to allow Nero access to the Internet, and/or lower your security index, and/or temporarily disable your security software.

Nero needs the http Port 80 to make a proper connection, so by adjusting your firewall or router, these ports become available.

If you have installed a software firewall you must allow the NeroPatentActivation.exe access to the Internet.

This is a common error message when you have a corrupted download. This can be caused by Firewall or Anti-Virus protection. Please disable these first, and then download and install our latest releases of our software.

You may want to download from another system and then bring over to your
system and install.

You can register your Nero software within the My Nero community. When creating a My Nero account you will be able to enter your serial number and register your software.

Please click here to get to the product registration page.

Those offers can be so called OEM versions (Nero 5 or 6) or Essentials (Nero 7). These versions do not have the full functionality of a full Nero version. The sale of these versions is allowed in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe and China. According to the current legal situation, the sale in other countries is not allowed without the bundled hardware (e.g. recorders or pc systems).
It is also possible that very cheap versions are illegal ones. Please don’t hesitate to send the offer (link, screenshot, etc.) to legal@nero.com so we can check the offer for you.

We are currently making this offer as an optional download with the Nero packages, at the user's choice and discretion.