Corel Draw “Illegal Copy” warning???

[John Bion]

HI All,
Has anyone else suddenly started getting this CD “warning” concerning having an “illegal” copy? I have a Legit Copy that I have used for years, suddenly getting this at start up, somewhat annoying on a busy day, to put it mildly:Screen Shot 2015-06-08 at 13.05.54.jpg

Kind Regards, John

[Dan Hintz]

How do you know it was a "legit" copy? Did you order it directly through Corel or did you buy it from eBay (or similar)? During the upgrade process, Corel will kill off licenses that have been used/reused multiple times, and this looks like one of those occasions (most times it's due to your license number being copied and resold many, many times). Is your CD pressed (silver underbelly) or is a writeable (some off-color underbelly... green, blue, etc.)?

[John Bion]

HI Dan,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is definitely the full-on, real McCoy (sp?) genuine original, super-duper, in the box/book/sealed, original bought from Amazon (Amazon themselves not a third party seller).
Kind regards, john

[Mike Troncalli]

So, did you contact Corel about the problem?

[John Bion]

HI Mike,

Yes I have, they asked for images of serial number and invoice which I sent off to them............drumming fingers on desk..........

However I have just deleted all temp files and restarted the computer and hey-ho it is working again! I had previously re-started CD several times with the same warning.
I’ll see how it goes and let you know.

Thanks to both of you for your replies,
John

[Mike Troncalli]

Your welcome.. Keep all of us updated as this is an interesting issue...

[John Bion]

Righty, Corel replied as follows:

Thank you for sending all the files!
Please follow these procedure:
1. Make sure that you are administrator and have disabled the User Account
Control
2. Remove CorelDRAW from the Control panel - Programs and Features
3. Press Windows key + R and type regedit. Hit Enter.
4. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\CorelDRAW/16
and make sure that this folder is deleted.
5. Press Windows key + R and type %appdata%. Hit Enter.
6. Open the Corel folder and delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages
folders.
7. Navigate to C:\ProgramData and open the Corel folder and
delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages folders.
Program Data is a hidden folder. If you can't see it, Control Panel -
Folder options -> View tab and enable "show hidden files and folders".
8. Restart the system and install CorelDRAW as administrator.

I did all that, but when it came to re-installing, all I got was: “Setup.xml could not be loaded. This may indicate that the file is corrupt.” No matter what I did, re-installing .net frameworks, ensuring all updates were done etc, I could not get around this. I then copied the entire CorelDraw installation CD into a file on my desktop and opened it from there (running it as administrator of course) and it worked. Relief at last .......... until.. :
When it came to the bit where it asks you to sign in, it would not let me past a window “offering” me the "Premium Membership", which I have never taken out in the past. I contacted Corel about this and was told that it was a known problem and that I needed to uninstall and re-install (steam beginning to escape from my ears at this point). I tried all sorts to get around it but no, nothing would work. I took a hard look at it and decided that even if it was an annual payment they were after, it was a relatively inexpensive upgrade to X7. So here I now sit reluctantly using X7 instead of X6, not happily, with a lighter pocket, somewhat annoyed at the absolute waste of time and money, but glad to have this means of production running again.
I generally like Corel draw, it is easy and intuitive to use. I do not, however, like the company that owns it. The only reason I do not use Adobe Illustrator is because of their cloud based system and that it is significantly more expensive, but I sure was tempted to switch to AI today, it came very close.

Kind regards, John

[Phil Thien]

I used CorelDraw years ago starting with 1.x. Nothing real work-related, just a fun too to have.

I really enjoyed the application, more-so than any other vector graphics software.

And I've thought of buying an older copy to play around with again.

But this disabling aspect is unsettling.

[Jeff Body]

Righty, Corel replied as follows:

Thank you for sending all the files!
Please follow these procedure:
1. Make sure that you are administrator and have disabled the User Account
Control
2. Remove CorelDRAW from the Control panel - Programs and Features
3. Press Windows key + R and type regedit. Hit Enter.
4. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\CorelDRAW/16
and make sure that this folder is deleted.
5. Press Windows key + R and type %appdata%. Hit Enter.
6. Open the Corel folder and delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages
folders.
7. Navigate to C:\ProgramData and open the Corel folder and
delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages folders.
Program Data is a hidden folder. If you can't see it, Control Panel -
Folder options -> View tab and enable "show hidden files and folders".
8. Restart the system and install CorelDRAW as administrator.

I did all that, but when it came to re-installing, all I got was: “Setup.xml could not be loaded. This may indicate that the file is corrupt.” No matter what I did, re-installing .net frameworks, ensuring all updates were done etc, I could not get around this. I then copied the entire CorelDraw installation CD into a file on my desktop and opened it from there (running it as administrator of course) and it worked. Relief at last .......... until.. :
When it came to the bit where it asks you to sign in, it would not let me past a window “offering” me the "Premium Membership", which I have never taken out in the past. I contacted Corel about this and was told that it was a known problem and that I needed to uninstall and re-install (steam beginning to escape from my ears at this point). I tried all sorts to get around it but no, nothing would work. I took a hard look at it and decided that even if it was an annual payment they were after, it was a relatively inexpensive upgrade to X7. So here I now sit reluctantly using X7 instead of X6, not happily, with a lighter pocket, somewhat annoyed at the absolute waste of time and money, but glad to have this means of production running again.
I generally like Corel draw, it is easy and intuitive to use. I do not, however, like the company that owns it. The only reason I do not use Adobe Illustrator is because of their cloud based system and that it is significantly more expensive, but I sure was tempted to switch to AI today, it came very close.

Kind regards, John

(CorelDraw Staff) "Come check this out Bob..... I got another one to sign up for X7. At this rate I'll be able to take my wife on that vacation she wanted."

[John Bion]

Another little thing that makes me scratch my head is that Corel Direct sell the upgrade for £215 (Very special one time offer - of course) but Amazon (genuine original copy by Amazon themselves) sell the same product for £150. When I questioned corel on this today, they gave me a 15% discount (£185), still that bit more than they sell it on Amazon.

I do not think my original problem was caused by Corel, I suspect some sort of Temp file issue on my computer.

Kind regards, John

[Ross Moshinsky]

Another little thing that makes me scratch my head is that Corel Direct sell the upgrade for £215 (Very special one time offer - of course) but Amazon (genuine original copy by Amazon themselves) sell the same product for £150. When I questioned corel on this today, they gave me a 15% discount (£185), still that bit more than they sell it on Amazon.

I do not think my original problem was caused by Corel, I suspect some sort of Temp file issue on my computer.

Kind regards, John

Nothing new. Quickbooks does the same thing. If you're lazy, they make you pay. The issue with software is it's all backwards and mostly forward compatible as well at this point. If you buy a copy of X5, do you really need to upgrade? So you may use X5 for 10+ years. 15-20 years ago, you'd be forced to buy software every year or two because of OS issues or print driver issues. Now the software is so stable the customer really doesn't need to upgrade but the company still needs to pay its staff and support their product.

I think it's an unethical approach to de-activate software, but I think it's reasonable to stop supporting 5+ year old software.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Righty, Corel replied as follows:

Thank you for sending all the files!
Please follow these procedure:
.....
5. Press Windows key + R and type %appdata%. Hit Enter.
6. Open the Corel folder and delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages
folders.
7. Navigate to C:\ProgramData and open the Corel folder and
delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages folders.
Program Data is a hidden folder. If you can't see it, Control Panel -
Folder options -> View tab and enable "show hidden files and folders".
8. Restart the system and install CorelDRAW as administrator.

Wow. Not one warning to backup your data. There goes all your custom pages, macros, workspaces, palettes, and any other defaults you have set up.

[John Bion]

I just had another reply from Corel Support:

Mr. Bion,
I appologize for the inconvenience! At the moment it seems we are having issues with the link to the update.​ (i.e.: The update forcing you to sign up for Premium Membership)
Please follow these procedure:
1. Make sure that you are administrator and have disabled the User Account
Control
2. Remove CorelDRAW from the Control panel - Programs and Features
3. Press Windows key + R and type regedit. Hit Enter.
4. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\CorelDRAW/16
and make sure that this folder is deleted.
5. Press Windows key + R and type %appdata%. Hit Enter.
6. Open the Corel folder and delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages
folders.
7. Navigate to C:\ProgramData and open the Corel folder and
delete both the CorelDRAW and the Messages folders.
Program Data is a hidden folder. If you can't see it, Control Panel -
Folder options -> View tab and enable "show hidden files and folders".
8. Restart the system and install CorelDRAW as administrator from this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6x...ew?usp=sharing

Three days without the ability to use CorelDraw would have driven me up the wall by now (let alone all the time wasted in the un/re-installing/communicating stage) but at least they are acknowledging the fault and trying to help. It was easier to sign up for Premium and keep working than remain in ‘down time’.

John

[Keith Colson]

This one reason why my laser system is not connected to the internet. Once it is working it can't be updated and broken.

[Scott Shepherd]

That just doesn't sound right to me. CorelDraw is giving you a link to their product download via a link to a Google Drive? I can't say that I've ever seen that before. It would make me very suspicious.