Got it for Christmas and slowly learning to use it. It is definitely 4 activations. Then if necessary you can purchase additional for about $40. But I only have it on one and then only thing I might do is put it on my net book, but the screen is small and I don't know if it would be worth it. I think they limit the activations so that folks don't just pass it around and they don't make any money. I can understand that.