GOODBYE - off to......................

[hello]

Good bye all,

I used to love photo impact, but no more. 11 started as a disappointment. Why Change things that werent broke?!

NOW - I can't run 11, 10, or even 8 without them crashing on start up.
Literally unusuable.

So I'm makng the plunge to photoshop. Doesn't make me happy, but it
doesnt CRASH!

Hopefully photoimpact 12 [?] can regain some if its former glory and useability. But it seems like you are losing too many customers.

Good bye.

[2log]

Did you even try to troubleshoot your problem? Why jump the gun so suddenly? It's even obvious that the problem is not within the software since all your 3 versions stopped working suddenly. Remember... this can happen to PhotoShop too...

[Xyzzy2]

Hello, try reinstall procedure you can find in one of the sticky subjects of this forum.

2log, PI is crap when it comes to software quality and Ulead is even greater crap when it comes to support. You know that, I know that, no need to pretend.

X.

[Bobed2121]

hmmm lets see Adobe Photoshop US$649
Ulead Photoimpact US$89

For $560 I wonder if Adobe will also come over and mow my lawn three times a month.

[wymjym]

Did you even try to troubleshoot your problem? Why jump the gun so suddenly? It's even obvious that the problem is not within the software since all your 3 versions stopped working suddenly. Remember... this can happen to PhotoShop too...

I had PI10 die on me, it took out an old install of PI9...neither ever worked again. Ulead was never able to help me.
I have had PSCS crash on me once, sent an email to support and not only did they respond within 24 hours but they actually had a fix for me. PSCSll has not had more than a hiccup every now and then.

re Ulead support
from my experiances and reading various forums (this one included) I have come to this;
either Ulead
#1 wrote such bad code that they cannot begin to really sort it out
#2 those that wrote the code have never been in a position to help the customer base
#3 Ulead truely does not care about the customer, assuming that their customer base will keep increasing despite the quality (or lack thereof) od the product.

wj

[Mike-Mat]

Well that's kind of weird ! A Guy who gets on the forum for the first time to tell us he's leaving. Didn't Groucho Marx sing a song like that once...

"Hello, I must be going. I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going. I'm glad I came, but just the same, I must be going"

Well Hello.... Goodbye!

Although I can appreciate his frustration of buying programs that dont work.

Mike

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,
Photoshop is a professional program. For average photo editing one uses about 10% of Photoshops power. Unless your doing true high res photo editing Photoshop is overkill. It's like using a $500,000 race car to drive to the supermarket.

Ulead puts out many programs. These programs share common files like many other windows programs.

Ulead needs to write a cleanup program similar to what "Nero" has started doing. Downloadable from their website.
Nero has had many similar problems with previous installs & many of their products on the same machine. Trials / retail versions, config files, registry entrees etc.

A good Ulead cleanup tool is needed to remove licensing/registry keys and configuration files.

The average user should not have to edit the registry to make their computer system operate properly. One small mistake in the registry and the computer is unstable.
Windows software / package management is a "Piece Of Junk".
Even the best expensive software programs have problems removing all the software of their product from the computer.

MD

[htchien]

MD, I heard you.

I've discussed with some Ulead people on this several days ago. In my opinion the tool should remove most install settings of Ulead programs and can generate some system info log file to help Ulead Tech Support to judge the problems and issues. And, some critical information such as trial time bomb will not be removed by the tool.

However, I cannot confirm if such tool will be avaible or not, but I agree it would help some people.

Best regards,
H.T.

[maddrummer3301]

htchien,

Thankyou, I know to write the code for such a program would be expensive. But this is a necessary tool due to windows poor package management.
I believe the confusion/problem is actually how windows addresses package management. Windows API's are mainly for installations.
Even it you un-install MS Office the registry entree's are still retained. Windows was written for simplicity, that was one main goal of MS. So, when one un-installs a program and the popup says "These shared files may be used by other programs" do you want to delete them......That is not simple, how does the average user answer that, they can't.
Whatever happened to "Common Sense".

Eventually it would be nice for the windows operating system to pick up the conflicts. Ex: 2 packet writing programs etc.
A MAC or Linux system refuses to install the product if there are conflicts and gives you a choice to continue knowing there is a conflict. You can always reset the conflict flags and remove any conflicting software or libraries(dll's). This package management is built into their operating system for stability.

There are some external package management programs written for windows that are pretty good.
Windows is a great operating system, they simply need to fix the holes for stability.

MD

[keenart]

Irrespective of Uleads problems or any other software package out there and everyone is having problems, the two best products on the market are Ulead PhotoImpact and Corel Draw with partner Photo Paint.

Adobe Photoshop is great for digital image alteration and printing, other than that they simply don't have anything else to offer.

Corel Draw and Paint are the product that most Art Departments I have worked for use and is by far the most difficult to work with. However, the price is reasonable and no other product can come close to the features available with the exception of Ulead PhotoImpact.

As long as Microsoft does their thing and controls the software world nothing will ever work correctly again.

And if Hello would have done a search on this Forum would have found a thread that indicated Micorosft told one young lady how to get Ulead working again, since the MS updates rendered PI8 usless to some users.

[Xyzzy2]

Here are my suggestions:

- as for reinstallation procedure
If setup detects traces of previous installation of the same version, it should display additionad setup wizard step with info like:
"Setup has detected that you have previously installed and then uninstalled Ulead XXX. Do you want setup to perform extra cleanup (your private files will not be affected)? This may improve future Ulead XXX performance and prevent program malfunction. Click Yes for extra cleanup or No to continue."
of when the product has not been uninstalled:
"Setup has detected that Ulead XXX is already installed. For optimal program performance, you may want to remove it before attempting reinstallation. You can remove Ulead XXX using Add/Remove programs icon in Control Panel. Click Yes to quit and open Add/Remove programs or No to continue installation".
The second version does not refer to Repair mode of course.
The process should be smart enough to handle multiple installed versions of the same product, configuration apparently used by many.


- as for support queries:
Please add icon in Start/All Programs/Ulead XXX menu like "Report an error to Ulead". This should run a little application that collects all relevant information about the system, presents it in human readable form (so user can see & confirm what is being sent) and allows user to input problem description and attach problematic file (like Microsoft crash reporting app).
Application should also handle registered users, so that they can identify (fe. by entering registraton code) and enter e-mail for support reply/communication.

X.

[JenT]

hello-PI might not have great tech support, but it does have fantastic community support with some very knowledgeable users. It's a shame that you never availed yourself of the opportunity to join the community to try and resolve your PI problems.

Bobed2121-I don't know about you, but IMNSHO even US$89 is a lot to spend for a pretty box with a useless CD in it. (And some of us outside the US pay a lot more than that!)

[Bobed2121]

Well Jen for my $49 (upgrade price) I have made over well 5000% return on my investment so far. So I have to beg to differ on the "useless" part of your post.

Have a wonderful day

[JenT]

LOL Bobed glad you've had such a fabulous return on your PI investment so far and my heartiest wishes that you continue to do so, but you misunderstood what I said.

What I meant is that if you can't get PI to work on your computer, US$89 is still a lot to spend for a pretty box and an effectively useless CD.

Unfortunately, there are indeed people who do have major trouble with getting PI to work for them and don't know about the user forums available to them for assistance, like "hello" above. I count my lucky stars that I found the user forums shortly after buying PI for the first time, with v6, and I also count my lucky stars that (knock wood) PI behaves well on my computer.

Have a good one!

[sjj1805]

Actually thse sort of posts always give me a chuckle.
anyone noticed that the original poster "Hello" has only ever made this one single post and never bothered to respond to replies given to his sweeping statement which does not even state anything other than
"I can't get this thing to work"

There is no explanation of his problem and he couldnt be bothered to even complete his system specifications.

He was not looking for help or support.
I doubt we will hear from him again.