Corel Photopaint X3 Died

Deanimator

Before I got Photoshop Elements (10 then 15), I used to edit jpegs using Corel Photopaint X3 (part of the Coreldraw suite).

I've got Windows 10 Pro. Corel worked for years, under XP, 7 and 10. It was working maybe a month or two ago. I hadn't used it since then.

Today I went to edit an image in Coreldraw (I needed to add some graphics) and it said the program wasn't compatible.

Nothing I did worked. I uninstalled the suite and then found I couldn't reinstall it, getting the same "incompatible" errors.

I found one or two "fixes", none of which worked.

I chatted online with Corel who said it was no longer supported and recommended that I upgrade. I told them I wasn't working and couldn't afford to. They then recommended that i downgrade to [among other things] Windows XP! The former can't happen, and the latter is STUPID.

Does anybody have any suggestions on making this work? My guess is that the latest big Windows update broke it, but I don't know for sure. I really can't afford $300 for the latest version and there's no way in the world, I'm blowing out my existing system to put on Windows 7.

I really do need Coreldraw and Photopaint as there are things that are just entirely too painful to do without them.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Richard

Bummer. I hate it when they "fix" things only to break others.

OK. don't panic--there may be a solution, but it might not be too easy. One caveat: I'm still on Win7 myself so I don't know how all this works in Win10. The first thing I would do is make sure that it was a Windows update that broke Corel. Check the Web (Corel forums first) to see whether this has happened to others. If you don't see anything, you can test it yourself by falling back to a Windows restore point taken while Corel was still working. Windows automatically saves the system state before it makes changes and you can restore the system without affecting your data files, though you must make sure that it doesn't automatically update itself immediately. If Corel still doesn't work, then you have some other problem. Look in the System Log for application errors that might give you a clue.

If Corel starts working again, then you probably have only two choices: 1) bite the bullet and upgrade Corel, or 2) install XP or Win7 as a virtual machine on your Win10 machine: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/create-virtual-machine and install Corel on the VM. A virtual machine runs on your main operating system (Win10) but provides a safe, isolated environment that runs applications under a different operating system. Think of it as a separate computer within your computer. You will need an installation disk for XP or Win7 to create the VM. Data files can be shared across VMs, and once it's set up, it's not difficult to use, though it will add time to your nightly backups, as the VM looks like one (very) big file to Win10. I ran a home brew photo database in an XP VM for several years after I moved to Win7, but eventually I got tired of the hassle and moved to LR. Note that the rest of your applications will still be running on Win10 and you should continue to update it to protect yourself against malware.

I suppose there is actually a third choice, assuming you get Corel working, which is to never update Windows again. I'm pretty sure Msft has made this option very difficult in Win10, if not impossible. But I would strongly advise against this, as you could put your entire system at risk if you don't apply security updates. In Win7, you can still apply security patches without applying the others, but last I heard, this was not an option on Win10. Dunno, but I'm sure some Win10 user will correct me if I'm wrong.

Good luck and let us know how you solve the problem.

ziggy53

There is the other option of purchasing an older XP based machine from someone who retired the machine and decides they no longer need the machine. You might even find people giving away older XP machines for free.

Then just reinstall the CorelDraw suite again on the XP machine and you're back in business.

I don't recommend running the additional machine for internet use, but you can safely add an old XP machine as part of a home network otherwise. (I keep a couple of old XP laptops running just for occasions like this.)

Richard

Yes, that's another option. It does require a bit of network knowledge to set up safely though, as the extra machine would need to be available on the local network while blocked from the WAN. It would also make backups a little more complicated, but it does have the advantage of being (possibly) free.

Deanimator

My strong suspicion is that this came about because of the huge "Creator's Update"(?) that came out recently. I don't think I've used Corel since that came out.

After I posted my message, I beat on it for hours until I got to the point where I could reinstall it, but it wouldn't activate. Corel was no help, although they did offer me a pretty good deal on an upgrade. However since I'm between jobs and can't afford some of the medicine I take, buying software I don't IMMEDIATELY need is a very bad idea.

Reintroducing XP onto my LAN seems like more work (and risk) than it's worth.

I indeed had a customer who ran a later version of Coreldraw (X16?) in a virtual machine. Oddly, this was not because Corel wouldn't work, but because the driver for his commercial color laser printer wouldn't work.

In the midst of all of this, my start menu and Cortana took a dump and I didn't get that working until about 2:00am (had to revert to a restore point). That leaves me wary of messing with it much any more.

Probably the only reasonable solution is to upgrade Coreldraw, but that's not going to happen until I'm working again.

Thanks for your assistance.

Deanimator

As an experiment, I've set up a virtual machine and am installing XP on it. As I said, I had a customer who did this to run Coreldraw with support for his unsupported (under Windows 7) printer controller.

We'll see what happens.

Deanimator

Well, it appears to run. I'm setting up drivers now to make sure I can see the rest of the network and print.

Deanimator

Just spent a couple of days fighting with Hyper-V and WinXP trying to get networking. Just got it working after about the fourth install.

I already know that X3 works under Hyper-V. I can now access network shares. Should be able to print to a network printer... after I install the printer and reinstall Corel.