its a 30 day trial... im not really trying to move to a newer version of max because I'm trying to get back into modding halo and the exporters always have issues higher than 9... I want to use 8 actually but i cant get that to work at all. Or 7 at all... but that was still discreet then so.. Also yes I ran it as admin and also compatibility mode for xp sp3 and turned off composite desktop stuff or w/e thats how i got it to even work at all before itd start and jus freeze. Idk why I cant see the activation page though... first one to answer my problem gets a cookie! No really I'll mail you a cookie :-)