X3 & PI 11 Freeze: UFO & Vista

[Marweb]

I have been using PI since version 4 and love the program. My last version before upgrading to X3 was V.11. I've never had any serious glitches UNTIL NOW.

The situation: X3 & PI 11 will not open UFO files created under Vista. Actually, that's not quite true. This morning I was working on two UFO files at once. I saved them using "Save As". Everything went OK. But, then I left the program for about 1/2 hour and went back and clicked on the screen and everything froze. So, down went X3. I restarted it and tried to load the two UFO files. I tried this MANY times. One would load (it was a simple text-image file). The other would not.... just clicking on the file in the "open" dialogue box freezes the program. I created another simple "test" UFO file with text and image... saved OK but it would not open in X3.... freezes each time. So, I went back to PI 11.... same symptoms. So, I tried opening UFO files created with v.11 when I was running Windows XP.... X3 opened the files quickly. Trouble is I am afraid of working on those files with X3 or v.11 under Vista and saving them since it looks like they will get corrupted. I have hundreds of these UFO files that I need to work on... What a bummer.

I uninstalled X3, rebooted, closed ALL programs, reinstalled.... same problem. Really stuck. X3 seems to work perfectly on jpgs etc. and is quick and nimble. And, PI 11 works well under Vista on everything but UFOs.

My computer specs: I just migrated from Windows XP to Vista. Most things have gone well.... I didn't realize the UFO problem until today, a month after migration.

HP Pavilion Desktop a62130n
AMD Athlon 64 X 2 5600+
2 gig ram
nVidia GeForce 6150SE Graphics Card

Is it expecting too much for Corel/Ulead to fix this problem or do I have to give up completely on my old friend PhotoImpact??

Charles

[Ron P.]

I've been using PI-12 and X3 on my Laptop, which uses Vista Home Premium. I've never experienced a freeze up, or any issues with opening any UFO files.

PI-11 is not supported to run on Vista machines. While there is a "compatibility mode" with Vista, it just does not appear to work the same as the compatibility mode on XP machines.

I also have PI-11 installed my desktop, with XP Home, no problems with it. However I'm not going to attempt to install it on my Laptop. No need to when I have a later releases that do run on Vista.

I don't really have a solution, just a possible guess. Try removing PI-11 completely from your Vista machine, and see if that helps. You might also try disabling Aeros.

[texasfrank]

I don't have X3 but to get v.11 to work in Vista I did disable the Aeros and some other features that "enhance" the operating system. Try going to your system properties, then advanced tab, then settings, then visual effects, select custom and uncheck every box. See if that works. You can then try adding one box at a time. I found that some features had no effect others caused problems.

[Marweb]

I tried Texasfrank's suggestion of going to the Control Panel/System and un-checking all the visual Aero pretty stuff that seems to be Vista's drawing card. The whole system now seems zippier... which makes sense since there is less for Vista to do....

And, IT WORKED to un-freeze the UFO problem!

I was able to open the UFOs that were frozen before and they function as they should with layers. Also, PI 11 also works.

Another symptom that indicated that it was a Vista incompatibility was that MediaOne would not open the files either.... now it will.

Thanks for the great help! Maybe Corel/Ulead could check this glitch out for folks who like a "pretty" Vista...

I'm back to using X3.