Paintshop Pro X5 - NIK Color Efex 3.0 gone from plugins fold

[AmberTopaz]

Hi,
I've been using PaintShop Pro X5 Ultimate, Version 15.3.0.8, for approx 2 years with no problems. (I have Windows 7 Home Premium). Suddenly, the 'Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 plugin has disappeared from the 'Effects' Menu, which now says 'No Plugins Loaded'.

I uninstalled the programme and then reinstalled from the disc, but still no Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 plugin. This is the same disc that I originally loaded the programme from and then the plugin loaded without problems, so I cannot understand why it no longer loads. When the plugin suddenly disappeared, the disc was not in the laptop, so it could not have been corrupted.

I've searched my laptop for the Nik Color Efex Plugin, I've checked the Registry and I've gone into the Corel files themselves (Local Disk (C:) - Corel - Corel Paintshop Pro X5 - Plugins - EN - Description - This is a folder for Plugins). The only file in the EN file is 'Description', which then opens a Notepad file that says 'This is a folder for Plugins'. There are no plugins, however.

Can anyone explain why this plugin has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. It seems nonsensical to me that they have disappeared from the disc they originally loaded from, too!!

[AmberTopaz]

Does anyone have any suggestions for this, please?

[Kathy_9]

I'm not sure how Nik was handled on the disc version of PSP because I had the download version.

For me Nik was a separate download link and not part of the PSPX5 installation. Do you by chance have two discs; one for X5 and one for Nik?

[AmberTopaz]

Hi Kathy_9.
I do have another disc, but it said it was for 'Face Filter Studio 2'. However, I've just checked and you're right - Nik Color Efex is on that disc. Now, don't I feel embarrassed!!! I must admit, I did wonder about that earlier, but was sure it must be part of the main PSP disc, that I didn't look, as I thought it would be a waste of time. Like I said, embarrassed or what!!!
Thank you for your suggestion and for helping me get this sorted out.

[Kathy_9]

Awesome!! Glad you got it sorted out.

[Ken Berry]

You may not have seen the announcement a couple of months ago now that Google has made the entire Nik collection, including the more recent Color Efex 4.0, a free download. Moreover, they work in both 32 and 64 bit versions of PSP: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/