photoimpact 12 verses Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate

[seesaa28]

I currently have PI 12 (but cant find the discs to install it on my new laptop) so I was thinking of buying something new "Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate" . I have noticed you can no longer by the product "photoimpact". I am wondering did they replace the photoimpact with the paintshop or are they two totally different programs? any info or help would be great Thanks

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

PhotoImpact and PSP are two entirely different programs. Corel did not exactly replace PI with PSP, they just discontinued PI. PSP is a great program, however the current version, PSP X3 has a ton of problems, especially if you're running Win7 64 bit. PSP is not the lone ranger, as VideoStudio has similar problems with Win7 64 bit, which seems to be a very strong common denominator. Corel must have messed up with their coding for it.

There are a total of 4 Official patches for PSP X3, and one un-official, and it still has problems. For sometime, if you installed SP-3, it broke numerous other things. I can say I haven't had near the problems with it, but then again, I run Vista and WinXP, not Win7 64 bit.

Sadly the only programs Corel has, are PSP X3, and Photo Paint, part of CorelDraw Graphics Suite. I wouldn't entertain buying one of their programs that has Express in it's name. Those are a real abomination.

[trueblue]

You can still purchase PhotoImpact X3 http://www.corel.com/corel/product/inde ... rod3430246

[ram]

I am running windows 7 enterprise in a corporate inviroment. I installed PI 12 full version on the users computer and everytime you try to run the program it wants a admin account. our users do not have admin rights. is there a patch to fix this problem?

[wds937]

I am running windows 7 enterprise in a corporate inviroment. I installed PI 12 full version on the users computer and everytime you try to run the program it wants a admin account. our users do not have admin rights. is there a patch to fix this problem?

I do not have PI 12, so this information is not from personal experience. There was a patch released for PI 12 for improved Vista compatibility, among other fixes. The fixes for Vista might (key word) also help with Windows 7. I don't know if the Administrator rights issue is one of the fixes, however. Keep in mind that PI 12 is not listed as being compatible with Windows 7--only Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

There was a previous thread on this board a few years ago (http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 90&start=0) that had the download address for this patch. That address is:

Code: Select all

http://ftp.ulead.com/pub/Updates/pi12/upi12_patch_(e).exe

Note that I have not tried to download the patch, so I can't say whether the link still works.

PI X3, while it is still available, may be another possibility. It is currently on sale on Corel's website for $29.99 per copy (download only). Since you already have PI 12 (licensed, I presume), you would probably qualify for the upgrade pricing of $19.99. The product page for PI X3 is http://www.corel.com/corel/product/inde ... segid=1258. Again, PI X3 is not listed as being compatible with Windows 7--only Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, I and others have had success in getting PI X3 to run on Windows 7. I am currently running PI X3 on Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit, without admin rights. I can't speak for the 64-bit version of Windows.

Because PhotoImpact is being discontinued, I wouldn't expect any future fixes. That being said, you may still have some luck in getting it to run for a little while longer.