Yes, I am guilty. 
I too, am one of the āold usersā and just found out about the new policy yesterday. Guess I also ābowed up in the backā about charging for something that Iād been using FREE for YEARS. No sir, just am not going to do it! Started looking at other free versions w/out even trying WWL. Found fault and lack of features on ALL free ones explored. Then saying āwhat the heckā went ahead and dlād WWL for a looksee. And I did like what I saw! Only thing, and sure it will come in the near future is some color added to icons (Mike?). Well peeps, it didnāt take me the generous 30 day trial to make a decision. After 4/5 hours of checking it out, went ahead and registered for a year and received my registration # in less than 5 minutes. Less than 10 bucks for 3 computers for 1 year? Unheard of, but to good a deal to pass on for a free version of lesser content. Thank you, Mike!! 
Suck it up.
Does anyone else see the hilariousness of all the wanna-be-freeloaders spending their time to āstick it to Mikeā by posting their complaints here? I mean seriously, itās of no consequence to Mike that youāre not going to purchase the new version, you havenāt contributed anything up to this point but whining and complaining that your free ride is over. Losing someone who isnāt willing to contribute isnāt a loss, thatās just called trimming the fat.
WW is a great product, one that Iāll happily pay for and use in the fuuture.
Keep up the good work, Mike.
Thanks for getting rid of the prompt to install the Ask Toolbar for registered users. I updated to 6.1.03 today.
One more suggestion, though, and Iām assuming something like this hasnāt already been done. When a registered user installs for the first time, how about asking for the license key during installation? If no license key is entered, it would install the trial version and prompt to install the Ask toolbar (if you insist on keeping it for trial users). If license key is entered, it wouldnāt have to be entered in the software, nor would it ask to install the Ask toolbar. What do you think?
Maaz
Maaz, I also updated to 6.2.1.3 today and wondered the same thing as you. However I went ahead and clicked on the āTRYā button, installed right on top of the old registered version. First thing I did after upgrading was check on the license tab, and it upgraded right along, license # and all. Didnāt have any prob at all w/mine. :icon_smile:
I think it should show āRegistered to: ā in the About box or somewhere to let you know it is registered. And also how many days you have left on your registration.
pjgiv, true. I was talking more on making sure the Ask Toolbar isnāt installed for registered users installing at the first time. However, I agree with both you and Boofo, that it should be more clear that the product is already registered when updating and that it should show an expiration date as well.
Maaz
First, I want to lend my support along with all those who would take the complainers to task. What in the world makes people think theyāre entitled to an unlimited free ride, or that theyāre the only ones suffering in this weak economy?
But Mike, I especially want to praise you for your lack of animosity in responding to them. It takes a lot of integrity to not give back like for like. You, sir, are a class act!
I admit I was disappointed to see that the time to pay for quality had come, but even though Iām only a casual user, itās certainly worth $10 to meāin contrast to most of the other weather software out there, free and even ad-free but still not worth installing.
Hip, hip, hooray for Mike!
Yes, āMr. John Bill Gatesā. Have you ever thought that Visual Studio Express Edition is offered for free and suites all the programming needs for WWL? Thatās a typical comment āĆ la Bill Gates / Balmerā; money focused all the way! Maybe youāll endorse all of us paying the air we breath in the short futureā¦ Maybe youāre a RICH man, āMr. John Gatesā. As such you donāt even think of those who canāt afford it. Yes, there are people who canāt, you knowā¦
Itās sad to see Mike having chose this path for WWL. As far as Iām concerned Iām getting rid of WWL right now and for good. I donāt want to feel myself like an ape who was shown a paying banana knowing that there are banana trees for free out there.
Nevertheless, I thank you, Mike, for your great work till now. Iām done with it though.
Good luck and tons of profit for all your future endeavors.
SoftGil
Youāre saying you cannot afford 9.95 a year for all the hard work Mike has put into WWL and will continue to do so? I live on a very small fixed income from VA Disability and even I could afford that. Why should Mike be burdened with paying for the Weather Info on his own? You guys that are whining about wanting everything to be free arenāt looking at what it is costing Mike in time and money to keep up the program. If he had gotten donations enough to keep things going then he probably wouldnāt have had to start charging for it. I applaud Mike for keeping the price low enough that everyone can afford it. Iām sure he will do just fine with registrations so those of you that are bucking the paid version can move onto to a less feature-filled free version full of ads and miss out on all the stuff he has planned for future versions.
Hang in there, Mike. You deserve loyalty more than you have been shown by some. Weāre behind you!
SoftGil, I respect your opinion, but Iām hoping you can respect my decision. Itās true that Microsoft offers a limited version of Visual Studio. That cost is only the tip of the iceberg though. For starters, weather data is not free. Itās fun to think that companies like The Weather Channel, WeatherBug, etc. should be able to provide that data for free, but there are many costs that go into such a business. The same is true for a software a development business.
For those who cannot afford the $9.95 subscription fee, there are many free alternatives available on the Internet (like the Weather Watcher Live Firefox extension). All of the alternatives will certainly not offer the same quality, features, support, etc., but thatās the usual price to pay when using something for free.
I have been using weatherwatcher for years. Iāve installed it on every computer Iāve had. And I also have recommended to others that I have worked on.
Then ww alerted me to an update. I found that ww had been discontinued and we were required to purchase wwl. And then I seen that it was affiliated with weatherbug. Which i always considered evil. So many adds an things.
So I started looking for an alternative. Weather Channel has one. $30.00 per yr. And if you want anything free itās full of adds.
So I have decided to purchase wwl. No one else can compare. Itās worth $10.00.
Thanks Mike for providing this for free for so long. It is an excellent program.
All I can say is wow. No warning, just bang start paying me. Well good luck with that. I suppose the mobile versions will be next. :sad:
There are tons of free weather programsā¦ I wont list them here as its not proper but if you looked for alternatives and only found Weather Channel your āsearch techniquesā leave much to be desired.
At any rate, while I enjoyed WWL I cant bring myself to pay for something that can be found for freeā¦ so as I said Mike, good luck with it.
bupahs, there are many free weather applications, but most of those leave a lot to be desired as well.
I know that there are many programs out there. I was using weather channel as an example. None compare to wwl.
I really donāt understand the big deal with paying $10.00.
Youāre not going to find anything free that is even close the WWL is regards to features and support. If you could, you wouldnāt be here making such a fuss over the 10 registration fee.
Actually thats not true, but again I wont list other weather apps here as its not proper. Feature for feature there are applications that do more, have a more ārefinedā user interface and as far as support, yeah its great now but Mike is only one person, if this programs grows think he will be able to keep up with support issues? I think not. Lets be a bit realistic.
Its not the 10.00 fee, its the fact that all of a sudden there it is, its a slap in the face to those of us that have supported Mike in the past.
With that, nuff said.
Iāve looked around at a few of the others before I settled on WWL and if they donāt have ads, they donāt have the features that WWL does. Mike will do fine with support as he always has. The real slap in the face is to Mike from those of you who think that everything should be free and he should not be considered in all of this for his time and energy to make WWL the best of the breed. Remember, you always get what you pay for in the long run.
I donāt mind. Please go ahead and list a few free applications that youāve found. Iām interested to see what others are doing.
Hmmā¦ well, I probably just cut my userbase in half by discontinuing Weather Watcher. Since Iām now charging a registration fee for Weather Watcher Live, Iām guessing that userbase is smaller as well. I was able to support all of my weather software for 9 years by myself, so Iām thinking it should be a piece of cake with a smaller userbase.
Really though, this sounds like a good problem. If I have that many registered users, I will certainly be able to afford to hire people to help me support the software. That means Iāll have more time to work on new features