Essentials Cafe

Hello everyone

Hope you can help me with a problem.I have to reset painter essentials 4 to factory settings each time I load the program.

Have windows vista and without holding down the SHIFT key cannot use this wonderful painting software...its becoming a pain!!

Anyone know of a cure please?

 Can you explain to us what happens if you don't hold down the shift key when launching the program? Does anything appear on your screen? Do you see the Painter Essentials "splash" screen? Or does the application window? Any more information you can provide will help us to better understand the problem you are encountering.

 Thanks
Jennifer
 

Hello Jennifer,

                  Thanks for the reply,and will try to explain.

Have been useing CPE4 on winXP but obtained a new computer with Vista.I installed the program and all went well till I tried to load it.The Frame came into view with the Welcome (Splash) screen and then it hung!!.

On reading the "readme file" it stated that if this happened press the shift key whilst loading and a box would come up allowing me to revert to factory settings which I did,and it worked!.Trouble is I have to do it every time I want to use the program. Have tried to disable the splash screen but that doesnt work,so may have to stay with Windows XP.....unless an answer comes my way!!

Thanks again Jennifer and will see if you come up with anything

Hello: 

Is the application installed to 'C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel Painter Essentials 4' or did you specify a custom install path when you installed?

Would you be able to verify if you have a Corel Painter Essentials 4 folder in this location:C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Corel\

Thanks!

Wendy

Hello Wendy and nice to meet you,

                                                     No,did not specify any custom path...have not done that ever with any program....and it is in the folders you mentioned.

Funny that I have to revert to factory settings even when I have not altered anything.The only thing that does change each time I try to load is the picture on the Splash Screen but when I try to disable the Welcome Screen,it just ignores the fact I have unchecked the box!!!

What I may do is dual boot XP and Vista,then I have the best of both worlds!!....thanks Wendy....interesting isnt it??

Hi Oakley :)

Those are indeed very interesting observations... I hope we can get you running on Vista even though you seem to have a backup plan :)

Do you happen to have any file management software installed on your Vista system?  Would you be able to provide a list of installed software?

Also, any additional information that you could provide about how your system is configured would be helpful.

Thanks!

Wendy

Ok Wendy..........Vista Manager,Acronis True Image.Ashampoo Burner.Photoshop,Skype and Webcam,Avast anti-virus and lastly Quicktime and Real.Have not had this machine long.

Guess your thinking around possible conflicts, which I cirtainly did and checked with Task Manager to see what was running,disabled what I could to no avail

 Will do a clean install in a while once Vista sp1 comes out and then I will put in CPE 4 first, in the meantime will use the program on my XP computer

 Will Be on the Forum as often as possible and of course keep you updated....thankyou

I am new here, and I have the same problem. My computer runs Vista 64b. I have tried a lot of reinstallations of Painter, and completely reïnstalled Vista without any change for painter.

It's as Painter is searching my whole computer for something, all HDDs are spinning (and I have five 300 Gb HHDs + 1 extërnal). Painter wil start indeed, but it needs at least 15 mn.  Then it runs OK.

I must use the shift key to start "normally".

I already contacted Corel for this issue, in the beginning of december 2007. This is their answer:

Thank you for contacting Corel Customer Support Services.

Currently, we don't have an official release of update patch of Corel Painter Essentials 4. I have forwarded your comments on to the Research and Development Department within Corel. It will need to be resolved in an update pack release to correct the problem.  Service packs are made available at our website, you can check there for patch updates as they are made available. We appreciate you taking the time to share your insight as a customer and we look forward to improving our service to you in the future.

Regards

 I just wanted to post a note to let you know that we are looking into the problem that both you are Oakley have been experiencing. We have not yet been able to duplicate the issue that you are having. I will post another response once we have some suggestions to try and fix the problem you are encountering.

Sincerely
Jennifer
 

Thanks Jennifer.

I would like to add that when my system ran with a RAID configuratione (the MB is een Asus P5K-E/WiFi-AP), Painter ran OK. When I reinstalled using the Intel ICH9 Sata AHCI controller instead, Painter must be started every time with the shift key.

Perhaps this wil help to troubleshoot the issue.

Best regards

Hello Jennifer

                   Following the discussions with interest,especially as I assumed the problem was "me".

Last week I invested money in Painter X(still trying to calm down my wife),and that program works fine on my Vista,but until I can get the hang of it am using Essentials on WinXP..........Have a nice day all

Hi Oakley and Teleoma:

I was hoping you could try something and let me know if it helps you with launching the app without the shift key.  Could you please navigate to this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Corel Painter Essentials 4\Resources (On Vista 64 bit)

C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel Painter Essentials 4\Resources (On Vista 32 bit)

In the Resources folder there is a folder called 'HTML'.  Please rename this folder (i.e. to HTML_TEST) and try launching Essentials again without the shift key.

Thanks!

Wendy

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for your help.

But, I reinstalled my whole system, installing Painter 4 in the end when all the over stuff, (including my antivirus, Liveonecare,) was installed. All the security stuff was running during the installproces of painter. It starts now without shiftkey.

But........ I cannot activate my Painter Essential 4 anymore. When I insert my serialnumber, I got the message, already activated. Knowledgebase gave no solution. A new problem to resolve.

Best Regards

Martine

Hi Martine:

Happy to hear your original issue is resolved!

I just wanted to clarify your new issue.  You have purchased a trial and are unable to activate it?  Is this correct?  Are you prompted to activate Essentials each time you launch it?

Thanks,

Wendy

Hi Wendy,

I purchased Essentials 4 in a bundle with Paint shop pro x2. (download version) directly from Corel. And I used the original downloaded product in the nwe installation.

I kept the installation code, the serial number and the activation code, but I can only insert the serial number. Painter is making a new installation code that I cannot modify.

Thanks again for your hulp

Martine