Hi all,

I am having an issue starting my Corel PaintShop Pro x3. I double click the icon and it things for a bit but nothing happens. I pull op task manager and the program is not in applications but it is in Process. I have tried to do it in both Admin and non admin states. Same thing every time. I have also restarted my computer and uninstalled and reinstalled the program. It worked fine the other day. I have made no changes what so ever to my computer. Also I have the latest patch for the software.


I am running windows 7 64 bit.

You may want to check you anti-virus, maybe it has flagged it as not trusted or something and just intercepts it when you start it, otherwise try to drill down into the dir that the icon points too and make sure all the program files are still there, maybe something happened to the files.

When did the problem started? Did you install anything about the time this started happening?

How old is that program, Corel PaintShop Pro x3? I have a few bits of older software that I essentially have to load up TWICE. With some old apps and games, I run the shortcut but nothing seems to happen, but like you, I check the Task Manager and it can be found 'running'. You can either simply ignore the running app and reload it, or quit the running app in Task Manager and reload it. I recommend the latter choice, as then you don't have it running twice. I'm not sure if this is a Windows 7 phenomenon or a multi-core processor issue, I think it might be to do with multi-core processors. It seems that an app or game loads on one core, but it needs to be loaded on the other (in the case of my dual-core). Or it could be that there is a conflict between 16-, 32- and 64-bit programs versus an OS of a different bit architecture, i.e. trying to run a 16- or 32-bit program on a 64-bit OS.

There may of course be times when the app or game runs first time.

The problem just started today or at least that is when I noticed it. I used it earlier this week without any issues.

Flyboy that is exactly what is happening to me. However closing it dosen't help at all. I can try getting it to boot 4 times seeing as I have a quad core. Its just strange that it just started today.

You could always try forcing it to run on one core by creating a new shortcut to the program and then...

Modify the "Target" option in your new shortcut to...

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel.exe (note to add in your actual program path where text is in bold)

... to dedicate the first CPU core to the program (or "/affinity 2" for the second, and so on).

This method might just work, and if it does, how easy was that? I don't know if the path to the 'cmd.exe' is different in the 64-bit version, but that's where it's located in the 32-bit version of Windows 7.

Hmm didnt work either. Well I guess its about that time of the year to reformat anyway. So I ll just reinstall windows and start from scratch.



Thanks for all the help guys!