How do I know if Net Nanny's working?

Net Nanny 5.1.x • 8 February 2011

This article refers to an older version of this product.

If Net Nanny v5 is active on your computer, you will have an icon in the lower right hand corner near the system time and it will be yellow. If Net Nanny's de-activated, there will be an icon with a "slash" through it. If Net Nanny is not installed, or has been disabled in some way, no icon will appear.

You will need to uninstall and reinstall. If you cannot uninstall from control panel => add/remove programs, please follow the directions below to delete the registry key. This will allow you to reinstall the program and set a new password. Make sure the new password is between 6-8 characters long. If Net Nanny asks you if you want to overwrite the old files, just answer "Yes to All".

Before you reinstall, it is a good idea to go to the Start Menu and do a Windows Update. During installation, please make sure that all other programs are turned off on your computer, especially anti-virus software. Also, please make sure you are logged on to the administrator account when you install and configure Net Nanny.

1) Go to Start-> Run-> type 'regedit' in the little Run window (no quotes)
2) That should open up the Registry Editor. Please exercise extreme caution in doing the following steps: ANY CHANGES MADE TO THE REGISTRY ARE PERMANANT
AND CANNOT BE REVERSED. Changes can also disable your Windows installation, so please be careful!
3) You should see "My Computer" and 5 drop-down "keys", all starting with HKEY_
4) Click the "+" next to HKEYLOCALMACHINE, this will drop down another series of keys. Find "Software" in the list and click the "+" next to that.
5) Continue to expand keys down in a sequence until you reach the following key:

HKEYLOCALMACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{519
45e07-120d-4e78-a368-c4c8d5042d21}

* If you don't see a reg key that starts with 519....., look for the key below, and delete this one instead:

HKEYLOCALMACHINESOFTWARENet Nanny Software, Inc.Net Nanny

If neither key is there, then go ahead and reinstall (step 9)

6) Once you have found the key starting with {51945e07... , you'll want to select it so it turns blue. You can do this by left-clicking on the name of the key.
7) Bring up the menu related to the key by right-clicking the digits once it's selected. This will bring up a menu with several options, one of which should be "Delete". Delete the key, and as long as you are positive you are deleting the key {51945e07... , confirm this.

* Note - Deleting the key won't uninstall Net Nanny. You must follow the rest of these instructions to reinstall Net Nanny. This will overwrite the corrupt files.

8) Cancel out of the Registry Editor.
9) Reinstall Net Nanny.



If you have the CD, use that to re-install.

If you purchased from our website (www.netnanny.com), you can re-download the software from https://www.netnanny.com/account. You will need your order number and password or the last 5 digits of the credit card and the email address you used when you originally purchased the software. If you have any questions about your account, please email us directly at support@contentwatch.com.

If you originally received an unlock key or serial number, you will need to enter that name/key or serial number once you install the software to unlock it. You can find your unlock name/key, or serial number from https://www.netnanny.com/account.

If you purchased a CD from a retail store, the serial number or unlock name/key are on the flap of the envelope that the CD came in.

If you purchased the software from a different web site, you will need to contact their customer service for another download.