Corel PaintShop Pro X7 Ultimate (Old Version)

I am about a month in with Windows 8.1 as of this writing. Before buying this I tried to install my PSP X3 which was supposed to be compatible but I couldn't get it to run. So, I bought this. here's a few random bits on my experience, some advice, and hopefully some things that will help some of you beyond just this software.My PC is powered by an Intel Core i7 980x processor @ 2.33 GHz with 24 GB of RAM and a very good video card and a monster 1500 watt power supply. I have a cable model. People often blame software, especially graphic software for problems that are more related to running modern software on an older and less adept PC. Imaging is a resource hog. Think of RAM as a workbench- the more room you have on the bench the easier it is to do big jobs. The less room you have, the more effort you have to put into making room and if you have a lot of stuff running in the background- all those icons by the clock are running in the background and more that doesn't show an icon. All that takes away from RAM. If you have a less than stellar processor, it has to keep all that stuff running and handle what you are doing with you imaging work, too.Something I found to be true with Windows 7 about half the time and I'm finding true with Windows 8.1 about 95% of the time is you really have to use the "Run as Administrator" command for installing software and launching it, at least for the first time. You can't do that from the bar at the bottom that gives you the save and run buttons. You can't do that from the "View Downloads" either. You have to locate the actual folder your downloads go into. From there you have to find the program, right mouse click it, and select "Run as Administrator" from there. I have seen programs that wouldn't install at all unless that was done and others that didn't work right after they did install unless I found the file and did the Administrator thing. I can't explain it easily; I just know it works and Windows 8.1 seems to demand it more than Windows 7 did.It's the same with launching a program- right click the icon and select "Run as Administrator" and 'yes' whatever the UAC (User Account Control) pops out.To date, every program, except PSP X3, that has given me trouble with Windows 8.1 was resolved by the Administrator command.Here's my experience with this- the downloader took seconds to download, install and run. The program downloading and installing took mere minutes. When I launch it, it is open and ready to work with in under 5 seconds. Files load into the work area in a blink and my image files are on a secondary drive 1.5 TB in size while PSP X7 resides on my primary drive, a 256 GB SSD (solid state drive).I can't comment on the mechanics of the image manipulation because I obviously don't use everything but what I do use works very well. As to what is no different between this and previous versions, I can't say much there either because in truth I don't care. Sometimes the biggest improvements come from the smallest tweaks. If something is good to begin with, why does overhauling it make it better? Change for change's sake? Not in my world. It works for me as I want, it's fairly easy and straight forward to use and for what it does, I can't beat the price.Oh yeah, I copied the down loaded program file to a CD with all the emails, access and activation codes, etc. so it's all there should I need to install it again. To quote my single digit years of my comic book hero, Sgt. Rock: "'Nuff said!"

This item so far appears to be very good, but if you are not used to working with layers, masks and the sort, then this can take some getting used to. The reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the constant lagging. If I had an old slow computer, then I could understand, but my computer is built for speed, and this is the only program which drags like this. The fact that it does a great job with pictures make it more than worth it though.Pros: Greatly enhances your pictures, many very useful tools for editing and manipulating photos, and for the price, you really can't complain!Cons: Not much of a Con, but still needs to be put out there. There's a bit of a learning curve depending on your experience, but don't let that stop you from buying this program, many new photo editing programs have these type of features, but this program does an excellent job. It lags with some functions, but just be patient, the end result is worth it.Would definitely recommend!!!

I have been using Paintshop Pro for years, and finally bought this version naively thinking it would be nice to update the version I have had for the last 5 years or more. But whatever merits this once-delightful program may have are moot given Corel's brazen and despicable practice of using it as a vector for unwanted advertising popups.You cannot even close the unwanted ad, it immediately pops up again, over and over, unless you kill the underlying PaintShop process in Task Manager. No matter how many times you've been forced to view the exact same ad, the program continues to display it ad-infinitum every time you close it.Just in case this isn't insulting enough, the ad I'm currently seeing actually advertises the same product I already own.An option under Help called Message Preferences that looks like it might let you turn the ads off has no apparent effect.Conveniently, they wait until the warranty support period has ended to unleash this hell on their paying customers, denying you the ability to complain to them about it. I guess they don't want to see the same message over and over and over and over!UPDATE 2014-12-13Just want to add that it turns out there is a way to defeat the popups, although you have to hack the program a bit to do it. You can just search for "How to Disable Messages in PaintShop Pro" and you will find the instructions. They work like a charm.Some other guides suggest that in order to keep the unwanted "Messages" folder deleted, you should create an empty text file in its place named Messages (with no .txt extension.) I did so, but I don't know if this is strictly necessary.To address some of the comments below:1. I understand how the ads are supposed to work - you are supposed to get one popup ad (typically for a Corel product, but this is surely not any binding obligation on their part) when closing the program, if Corel has pushed one out to you. If you check the box to not see it again, you're supposed to not see that exact ad again (but may well be served a different one next time.) The behavior I was getting was clearly a bug in the program, causing it to spew the same ad over and over again, blocking the program from closing fully. The moral of the story should be, if you're going to force ads upon your customers, you'd better get it right, or face wrathful reviews like this one.2. To those who point out that hey, ads are everywhere these days, what's the big deal, I would point out that companies will take any advantage that their customers will tolerate. Being resigned to it only guarantees it will continue. And there is already a class of software supported by advertising - this is called, appropriately enough, "adware." Adware should be, and usually is, labeled as such. And until the recent annoying trend to the contrary, adware was always an opt-in concept: you can be hit with ads, or you can buy the program. I bought the program.

Works fine with Windows 7, I have no popup ads as stated by another reviewer, Came with 32 & 64 bit versions, to use the bonus effects you have to use the 32 bit version then look under effects plugins to find them. Very good editing software for the price.UPDATE:After using this for about 6 months a NAG Screen started popping up which I have found no way to turn off,it is annoying if you are doing something you don't want to pause such as a game.. I am removing stars for this because I paid almost $50.00 for this product and don't feel it is fair to be nagged to buy a newer version, I would expect this if I were using a free or demo version.I WILL NOT BUY THE NEWER VERSION SIMPLY FOR THIS REASON!