Installing "Upgrade" versions onto new computer

David Mears · Post by **David Mears** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:32 am

I did a brief scan to look for appropriate postings on this topic and didn't find anything that looked promising, so ....

All the versions of VideoStudio (and the most recent version of DVD Workshop) that I have are upgrade versions. I've just gotten a new computer and want to install the code onto the new system so I can begin working with it there. But being an "upgrade" version, it won't install since the new computer doesn't have any existing ULead code on it yet.

My original computer came with VS5 SE pre-installed, and I upgraded to VS6 and then to VS9. I'm considering upgrading to VS11+ now so I can work with ATSC (HD-OTA) files recorded by Media Center. I also bought DVD WS 1.2 and have upgraded that to WS 2.0.

How can I install my latest versions of VS and WS onto the new system? I'd like to install from the CDs I have as I believe this to be more reliable than trying to copy files from one system to the other piecemeal.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:47 am

Older programs would look on your hard drive for a program that entitles you to the upgrade if it did not find one it would ask you to show it the installation file - either on your hard drive if downloaded, or the disc if you bought it boxed.

Newer programs simply ask you for the serial number of your previous program that entitles you to the upgrade.

David Mears · Post by **David Mears** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:05 am

sjj1805 wrote:Older programs ... would ask you to show it the installation file - either on your hard drive if downloaded, or the disc if you bought it boxed.

That does seem to be what the VS9 install CD was asking for. I couldn't seem to figure out how to satisfy it, though. I did find a CD I'd burned myself with the VS6 code (from a download), and I copied the .exe file onto the new PC, but the Search dialogs for pointing at the old install file didn't seem to recognize files; it would only let me go through and "open" directories, but not find any files in those directories. Perhaps it was looking for some type of file other than a .exe, and it's entirely possible I'm missing something in the process here.

Newer programs simply ask you for the serial number of your previous program that entitles you to the upgrade.

I assume VS 11+ would qualify as a newer program; perhaps it would be easiest to just buy the VS11+ upgrade and install that using the serial number off my VS9 code.

I also assume I need VS11+ or newer to be able to deal with pvr-ms format files (from Media Center) anyway? One of the things I want to be able to do is to use VS to "play" Media Center recordings at 2X speed. I've been using this feature of VS9 on my old system with standard MPEG-2 files recorded manually (using the Record button in DVD Workshop) from the NTSC tuner in that system.

I installed the Trial Version of VS11+ on the new system, just to test some things out, but it doesn't work well with the pvr-ms files from MCE. Big files just cause the program to hang; smaller files will load, but don't play cleanly. The picture only updates every few seconds and I get no audio at all. I'm hoping this is due (both cases) to using trial version code. I've had problems with trial versions of older ULead code as well, though the purchased code worked fine later.