PSP X3 deactivates after VirtualBox is upgraded

[ender]

Ever since I started using Paint Shop Pro Photo X3, it would sometimes randomly deactivate, requiring me to contact support to get it to run again several times. I have finally figured out what triggers deactivation: upgrading VirtualBox virtual machine software. Note that I'm not running PSP in a virtual machine - it's installed on the host.

Can anything be done to prevent PSP from deactivating the next time I upgrade VirtualBox? I'd like to avoid having to spend 26 minutes on an international call again to reactivate PSP.

[teknisyan]

Hello ender,

It appears that the problem is that your PSP X3 is installed on a host and being accessed remotely. Keep in mind that PSP X3 needs to be installed on your computer to avoid the program from deactivating randomly.

[ender]

PSP is installed on my home workstation (which is for my personal use only - I do not let anybody else use this computer), and I do often access this computer remotely - mainly because I've got everything I could ever need set up here. I did run PSP over remote desktop a few times as well, usually to paste a screenshot without having to save it on a remote machine first (I've got my personal webspace mapped as a shared drive, and I did take an amusing screenshot at some other machine several times, pasted it to PSP and then used PNG Optimizer to save directly to my server).

However, I don't actually use PSP through Remote Desktop all that often (it's not usable for anything more complicated than saving screenshots, and even that is often slow), and the deactivations seemed pretty random. I only started paying attention to VirtualBox after I noticed that it sometimes messed up virtual network settings in VMWare Workstation (I use both products), and then I figured out that PSP seems to deactivate after I upgrade VirtualBox - it certainly did this 3 times in the last month, when I installed VBox 4.0.2, then 4.0.3 and 4.0.4.

[teknisyan]

Hello ender,

There could be something in VirtualBox that deactivates PSP X3. Because the program only needs to be activated during installation or when you change any component of your computer. If VirtualBox is causing this issue. The problem could be that PSP X3 is detecting that there is a changes in the SYSTEM that is why it is asking you to activate it. What could have happen is that VirtualBox is making it appear that PSP X3 is being used by a totally different computer that is why it is being deactivated.

Unless there is a setting on VirtualBox that will allow you to use the resources on the local computer where PSP X3 is installed, the only solution that I can suggest would to contact the VirtualBox Support and check if there is a settings that you can use to make sure that PSP X3 will know that you are still using the computer where it is installed.

[ender]

IMHO, this is a problem in Paint Shop Pro, not VirtualBox - I also have MS Office and Abbyy FineReader installed, both of which require activation, but I have never had them deactivate (not to mention Windows itself). Even Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 seems unaffected (although I admit I haven't run it since I installed X3 - I actually forgot I had it installed).

I'm also unsure what you mean by "Unless there is a setting on VirtualBox that will allow you to use the resources on the local computer where PSP X3 is installed" - I'm not running PSP in a VBox virtual machine - they're both running on the same OS.

[ender]

Update: uninstalling VirtualBox activating PSP and then installing VirtualBox again seems to have helped (PSP didn't ask to be activated again after VirtualBox was reinstalled, although for real confirmation I'll have to wait for the next VirtualBox update).

[Tim Morrison]

Thanks ender. It's not something that I have noticed, but I haven't updated to VirtualBox 4.0.4 yet. Perhaps it's something that is less likely to occur on a Windows XP host than a Windows 7 host because of the less complicated user permissions structure.