how to remove ads when closing application?

[cgw1951]

How can I remove the persistent ads/promotional messages/whatever they are called that pop up on my screen when I close paintshop pro x4? I have tried to stop it by going to the guide symbol and then the two cogs and inchecking boxes but no good. Any suggestions - I have put up with it for ages but it is annoying and I would suggest unproductive a definite turn off - I no longer read the ads

[MarkZ]

How often do you have the messages popping up? There have been a number of posts with the same complaint as yours.

I use X6 and had the message pop up periodically but have not had it for a number of weeks now. The last was about a St. Patrick's day promotion. I'm interested in your experience because I fooled with the Registry and wonder if that made the difference. Has Corel stopped sending the messages or did I do something to stop them?

[cgw1951]

I think I may have disabled it in a very obscure part near the guide by deselecting something about updates. But it may just be intermittent. the thing I dislike about it is an attitude very prevalent on the internet about treating us a cows to be milked/punters. Do companies not realise how counter productive spamming is? It is disappointing to have a perfectly good company intruding in this way.

[Kathy_9]

How often do you have the messages popping up? There have been a number of posts with the same complaint as yours.

I use X6 and had the message pop up periodically but have not had it for a number of weeks now. The last was about a St. Patrick's day promotion. I'm interested in your experience because I fooled with the Registry and wonder if that made the difference. Has Corel stopped sending the messages or did I do something to stop them?

Mark -- I'm still getting the St. Patrick's day ad in X6 so maybe your registry tweak worked.

[MarkZ]

Kathy:

How often does your message pop up? I feel that I hadn't had it for weeks. After I read your note I thought I'd try the program again, even thought I use it every day. So, after two or three starts (it opens quickly so I don't mind opening and closing a few times), a new message popped up - "Phototip: Less is more". Same look as St. Patrick's. A few more cycles, no ad.

I'm curious how my experience compares to others' as the frequency for me is very mildly annoying.

[Kathy_9]

I just opened and closed X6 four times and it alternates between the "Make St. Paddy's Day Photos Pop" ad and the nag screen to download the service pack update. I have not updated to SP1 or SP2.

[MarkZ]

I just opened and closed X6 four times and it alternates between the "Make St. Paddy's Day Photos Pop" ad and the nag screen to download the service pack update. I have not updated to SP1 or SP2.

Wow, now I see why people are so upset about the ads. My experience has been quite different. I'll expand on what I've done.

I do have SP2 and did have ads pop up, not quite as frequently as you. When Tadjio posted about looking into the registry regarding the save size issue I poked about regarding the messages.

Warning - I don't know what I'm doing and going by trial and error. We've all seen the warnings that messing with registry can be harmful to the health of your computer. Should anyone make changes after reading this, I'm responsible only for my own foolish actions, not anyone else's.

I had looked at C:\ProgramData\Corel\Messages and going through the list it seems all the folders are for messages such as "thank you for registering" and other items referring to registering. I could not find anything to do with the advertising or promotions.

I went into HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\PaintShop Pro\X6\ in registry and found a few references to what appear to be messages. in the folder msg are many numbered folders. I could not find any indication of what they were for (what kind of message). The numbers were different than the folders in ProgramData and the values are larger (therefore later?). In msg is an item called Schedule and OriginalSchedule with data in hexadecimal format. Schedule, the first time I looked at it, contained about 41 pairs or "words". To see what the effect might by I made a note of the original string and then changed one of those pairs, something like changing 03 to 00. This change did not seem to affect the ability to launch, use and close PSP. When I went back in I found that the data in Schedule had been reduced to sixteen words.

I've made a number of changes since and PSP seems to keep and write the same data. Here is a screen shot of what I see:

Right click on Schedule and select Modify brings up the "Edit Binary Value" window. The only changes in this string that I have seen is in the word at the beginning of the second line, which is 01 initially but goes to 03. I changed the data string to 00 (just the one word) but after launching PSP it reverts to the longer string.

msg and msgtracking contain the same folder numbers, other than the first two folders in msgtracking do not exist in msg. Again, I wish I knew what each of the folders, which advertisement, the folder represents. I don't have the guts to delete any of the folders. Perhaps I'll try changing some of the numbers as I should be able to go back and change back.

I don't know if messing around with these data has made any change to the messages I (don't) get. I have launched PSP repeatedly, especially yesterday and today. msgsys keeps a count of the number of times that PSP has been launched. Since the number was small to start with this morning (when I first spotted this) I suspect that it is reset when an ad appears. The number was about 10 this morning. I launched repeatedly up to 30 with no ads. I manually changed the number to 50 thinking that the number may trigger an ad, continued launching and have still had no ads pop up with the count at 58.

So, bottom line, my experience with the ads is dramatically different than your and others who have posted about this. I don't know if what I've done has affected my experience at all or if it is some other factor. Perhaps the experience of others will confirm one way or another. It would be so much easier if Corel would just stop this nonsense.

[pdxrjt]

Not sure about other PSPs, but I just opened mine 10 times. The second time a window popped up offering to take me to the "How to brighten a dull photo" tutorial. I clicked (or tried to....as you probably know the window disappears when you go there) on don't show this again. The next 8 times, nothing. I do have sp2 installed. May try again later to see if it is some sort of timed thing (like it will nag you daily, or once an hour or whatever.) But for me, just now.... once in ten openings.

[Kathy_9]

They say life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you will get. Well, the same holds true for PSP. Just for the heck of it I once again opened and closed PSP X6 four times in a row. Today, instead of alternating between the St. Paddy's Day ad and the upgrade nag, I got the upgrade nag all four times.

[pdxrjt]

Okay, maybe I was just lucky....opened it 5 more times and nothing. Of course, the nag screen doesn't bother me very much..... maybe that's why I don't get it

[Tadjio]

Just to add my two pennies worth to the conversation, on the whole I do not have problems with the messages.
Last week I had the "St Patrick's Day" message (on St. Patrick's Day - 17th March) but it had disappeared when I thought to check later in the week.
Yesterday, Sat 29th March, I got a new message for the first time - "Less is more". This time I watched it closely and after closing and opening PSP X6 SP2 5 times, the message has never re-appeared. I didn't consciously tell it to go away...

[Zacabeb]

I wish there was an easier way to disable those ads... a tick box or a single boolean value in the registry at least.

If anyone from Corel is reading this, am I right in my assumption that given PSP is now adware, PSP X7 will be given away free of charge?

I miss Jasc.

[csh2000]

Come on Corel. What kind of BS is this. I've been using this product since it was JASC and have been purchasing almost every upgrade since. I'm now running PSP X6 and it looks like you have removed all possible ways to stop getting advertisements. I specifically purchase software in order to get support and not get nagware... This is unacceptable... FIX IT!!!!

[sheilsoft]

Totally agree... You pay for full version, you should have ALL ads removed... That's the whole point!

Come on Corel... For many years I've purchased the latest versions and recommended the software to many others... I feel less inclined to do so now. Whatever lead Corel/Jasc once had is now diminishing through slack programming. I'm not sure who PSP is aimed at these days. It's quite clear any beta testing of new versions and updates is not up to par, as seen in the many bug comments on this forum.

I now use Adobe Lightroom for 95% of my workflow, and not a bug in sight!

[BrianCee]

It's quite clear any beta testing of new versions and updates is not up to par, as seen in the many bug comments on this forum.

Many members of this very forum will feel a little upset at that comment as they took part in the beta test - and I would suggest they all did their part very diligently - but beta testers are not responsible for what Corel eventually decided to release.

If Corel Executives decide they are going to issue a new version on a specific date then it will be released - irrespective of what beta testers or programme developers say.

Not saying it changes the situation with bugs etc. - but lets make sure we're pointing the finger in the right direction

and just let me repeat - I do not work for Corel