Having problems with Corel Draw? Before re-installing, try this solution.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I thought I would post about a problem I had with Corel Draw. At some point in time, I was no longer able to open a CDR file from File Explore. Even though the file was associated with Corel, when I double-clicked on the file, or right-clicked on the file and used Open With, CorelDraw would open, but it never finished that last step of opening the file. I could double-click on any other type of file and open the associated program. (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc.) I could only open CDR files while in Corel Draw and using File Open.

While searching the internet, I found lots of people posting problems about the same thing with different versions of Corel Draw, but found no real solution for it. I tried re-associating the CDR to Corel Draw. I tried re-installing CorelDraw and having it Repair any issues. I tried uninstalling CorelDraw, rebooting and re-installing CorelDraw and still the problem persisted. Instead of taking the time to re-install Windows 7 CD, upgrade to Windows 10 and re-install everything else from scratch, I dealt with the problem using Search in File Explore to locate the file location and then going back to Corel Draw and using File Open and moving to that directory to open the file.

A few weeks ago, I could no longer use the Search feature in File Explore. Digging around about that, there were some clues that it was a corrupt Windows Profile.

I created a new local Windows Account and suddenly, ALL of my little CorelDraw quirks disappeared. Search worked again in File Explore and I could double-click a CDR file and it would open the file. All of this time, I had a corrupt Windows User Profile.

So, if you are having some quirky problems with your Corel Draw, before you F8 and reset it to factory settings or re-install everything, try logging into a different or new Windows User Account on that same computer and see if the problems go away.

[Steve Utick]

I thought I would post about a problem I had with Corel Draw. At some point in time, I was no longer able to open a CDR file from File Explore. Even though the file was associated with Corel, when I double-clicked on the file, or right-clicked on the file and used Open With, CorelDraw would open, but it never finished that last step of opening the file. I could double-click on any other type of file and open the associated program. (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc.) I could only open CDR files while in Corel Draw and using File Open.

While searching the internet, I found lots of people posting problems about the same thing with different versions of Corel Draw, but found no real solution for it. I tried re-associating the CDR to Corel Draw. I tried re-installing CorelDraw and having it Repair any issues. I tried uninstalling CorelDraw, rebooting and re-installing CorelDraw and still the problem persisted. Instead of taking the time to re-install Windows 7 CD, upgrade to Windows 10 and re-install everything else from scratch, I dealt with the problem using Search in File Explore to locate the file location and then going back to Corel Draw and using File Open and moving to that directory to open the file.

A few weeks ago, I could no longer use the Search feature in File Explore. Digging around about that, there were some clues that it was a corrupt Windows Profile.

I created a new local Windows Account and suddenly, ALL of my little CorelDraw quirks disappeared. Search worked again in File Explore and I could double-click a CDR file and it would open the file. All of this time, I had a corrupt Windows User Profile.

So, if you are having some quirky problems with your Corel Draw, before you F8 and reset it to factory settings or re-install everything, try logging into a different or new Windows User Account on that same computer and see if the problems go away.

There is likely an easier way to do this. I've had similar problems in the past with my old CorelDraw 2017. If you hit the Windows Key on your keyboard and type in %APPDATA%, this will take you to a folder where all of your application specific data is stored. There should be a Corel folder in there. Inside that folder will be a sub folder for your specific version of CorelDraw (ie: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2017) Delete this entire folder structure, and restart CorelDraw. The folder structure will get recreated, and your CorelDraw should be back and working as if it's a new install. Should accomplish the same thing as creating a new Windows Account, but without a lot of the caveats and hassles that come with that solution.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

There is likely an easier way to do this. I've had similar problems in the past with my old CorelDraw 2017. If you hit the Windows Key on your keyboard and type in %APPDATA%, this will take you to a folder where all of your application specific data is stored. There should be a Corel folder in there. Inside that folder will be a sub folder for your specific version of CorelDraw (ie: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2017) Delete this entire folder structure, and restart CorelDraw. The folder structure will get recreated, and your CorelDraw should be back and working as if it's a new install. Should accomplish the same thing as creating a new Windows Account, but without a lot of the caveats and hassles that come with that solution.

That is definitely a useful solution and should be tried before my creating a new User Account. In my case, it actually was a corrupted Windows User Account. I didn't elaborate in my first post, but I had been having problems with Explore randomly closing when I had stepped away from the computer and some other minor Windows-related quirks. Ultimately I need to do a clean Windows install, but I plan on buying a new computer and will only use the old one as a backup.

[Steve Utick]

That is definitely a useful solution and should be tried before my creating a new User Account. In my case, it actually was a corrupted Windows User Account. I didn't elaborate in my first post, but I had been having problems with Explore randomly closing when I had stepped away from the computer and some other minor Windows-related quirks. Ultimately I need to do a clean Windows install, but I plan on buying a new computer and will only use the old one as a backup.

Unfortunately, Windows is one of those operating systems that does destabilize a lot over time, and occasionally needs to be reinstalled fresh. Updates, etc. cause it to slowly implode over time. Nature of the beast. But, also a good excuse to buy new, bigger better faster machines.

[Kev Williams]

Nice to know about the %APPDATA% thing, I've kinda familiar with it but I didn't know I can just delete files/folders and just let the program start them over! thumbsup.gif

Lately I've been buying older drive-less SFF Dells on eBay for $40 or less, bought 4 so far; picking up 250g PNY SSD drives for around $17, pairs of 8gig memory sticks for around $22, and I have a copy of Win7 Ultimate-64 and several cheap licenses for them-- These computers cost me maybe $85 all in, they fully boot from pressing the ON button in less than 20 seconds, and lightning fast at everything they do. Wonderful for my fiber lasers!

--I have scads of old hard drives laying around, I just reformat and add one to them to store and backup work files...

I have win10 on a laptop, I never use it, can't stand 10. Never tried or seen Win11. I have an old win8 computer, has its original 1gig HD in it, hate it too, so I put a 1g SSD in it and parked it under the table holding up my 50w fiber... It's it's always on no monitor, keyboard or mouse, its only use is it's my network's "save-to" computer. Once a month or so I copy everything on its SSD to its HD as my 'backup system.'

I have several other Win7 computers, an HP laptop that came with Vista Home, I have 2 XP's just because they still work just fine, and I have 98se on an old HP Pavillion so I can run my original DOS version of CasMate and a Win3.1 CasMate Lite tracing programs; Corel's 'trace', Vector Magic, others, they can't hold a candle to the 'just outline the black and be done with it' way Casmate works. I don't much care for newer Windows, or lots of newer software for that matter. Yeah, I'm an old fart too set in my ways! yup.gif