PhotoImpact X3 VS Corels?

[brucefl]

I am still using photoimpact, still like it though has a few flukes still with things. Anyone switch to a Corel product and liked it. Still too bad Corel did away with PhotoImpact.

[Sualdam]

You'd better be careful, Bruce, if you're using Windows 10.

Technically, PhotoImpact hasn't been supported since 2009, so I (should I say "we") was lucky it continued to work through Windows 7 (I didn't use Windows 8 on my PC, though I did on my Surface) and Windows 10. From my own experience as a Windows Insider, a W10 update sometime in early January 2017 killed it, and Corel told me it "didn't work with W10 anymore". Whatever could be read into what Corel meant or understood of the problem, the fact remains that it stopped working with every subsequent Windows 10 insider update since January (that was at least six separate builds). Rolling back to the last good build fixed it, but the update from January killed it stone dead.

W10 updates on the Insider rings tend to be passed over to normal users within a few months. I don't know exactly what changed, as Microsoft no longer provides detailed breakdowns, but whatever the insider change that caused my problem, it persisted from that date in January. I can only assume the change will roll over to everyone else sometime soon, and that's why I say "be careful".

I switched to PSP as a result and was pleasantly surprised at how PhotoImpact-like it is. It is obviously much better (about 8 years of progress better, when you think about it). There are some things I miss, like the artistic plug-ins from PI which are not quite the same in PSP, but that's not the end of the world. PSP is different, but not THAT much different as long as you give it a chance.

From what I've read, if you click the right buttons you can get PSP for less than a quarter of its listed price (I paid £80 a few weeks ago, but others have been seeing offers around £15-£20). Assume £=$ for the purposes of illustration

[brucefl]

Thanks, haven't had a problem with it, have used it since I bought it and Corel stopped making newer versions. I have gone right up from xp to windows 10. I was just thinking maybe it is about time to upgrade to something newer (unfortunately) They did have a good thing going, too bad for them and us I guess. Thanks again.

[Ron P.]

FWIW, I've been running PIX3 on my Win10 system, without using compatibility modes, and haven't had any issues.

[Sualdam]

Neither had I until the Insider builds which commenced in mid-January.

As I say, whatever changes they put out for testing in Insider builds tend to make their way over to normal users sooner or later. Since PhotoImpact was never officially supported by W7 or later, I'm happy to have got away with it for as long as I did. However, I can only conclude that it was an Insider update which started the problem, and persisted with all subsequent builds - hence, that it will be passed over to everyone else eventually.

Just advising caution, that's all.