Just Release: Xara Designer Pro X11

[Rob-Xar]

I hope this doesn't sound ignorant. If I upgrade to Xara 11 (local installation), does it phone home when I start it? I don't like the idea of having to be connected to the internet to use software I purchase, and I don't like the idea of having my usage monitored.

I understand why it is necessary to phone home to use the on-line version, but I want to make sure that it doesn't phone home when it's installed on my hard drive and then I use it.

If your connected to the internet then it will check to see if it is still valid (incase you deactivate it through your account online), along with if there is any patches to the program or if the designs gallery has been updated etc.

If your offline though and it can't get through, it checks the local validation, so if you activated or had your validation checked less than 30 days ago then it's happy.

None of the activation checking is intrusive though, it all happens silently in the background.

[handrawn]

you have to admit Rob, it's not good for installation on a computer that is never usually connected to the internet, and such do exist - it's as if the assumption, yet again, is that this is a web software program and that using it to draw with only is a sub-set - mike [mwenz] has a point, although I think it is head and shoulders above the previous activation system that was just naff

how about use in a corporate environment where access to the outside world is often strictly limited for many programs?

[Rob-Xar]

you have to admit Rob, it's not good for installation on a computer that is never usually connected to the internet, and such do exist - it's as if the assumption, yet again, is that this is a web software program and that using it to draw with only is a sub-set - mike [mwenz] has a point, although I think it is head and shoulders above the previous activation system that was just naff

how about use in a corporate environment where access to the outside world is often strictly limited for many programs?

I don't really have any say in the activation process, but it's main purpose it to give you the ability to activate / deactivate yourself without letting people abuse the system such as activating, putting the computer offline and then deactivating via your account online. I know what you mean though. At least I suppose we're not forcing other stuff *cough simpliclean cough* to be installed as well.

Corporate enviroments (or business licenses i should say) have a slightly different method of running, in that a server has a license manager with a set amount of licenses (say 20) and the client program is installed on 100 machines, but up to 20 can open Xara at any time. They don't have to be connected to the internet to run, only to the server to use a key.

[handrawn]

yes, it's a wicked world... and interesting what you say about corporate Rob - thanks

[Boy]

Yes, and just a quick note with the upcoming windows 10 release please remember to deactivate V11 Xara before upgrading and then re-active once you have installed Win10!

Could you explain to us why this is the case, Rob? When you say "please remember," where can I find the original announcement?

[Rob-Xar]

Could you explains why this is the case, Rob? When you say "please remember," where can I find the original announcement?

There's not really an original announcement (yet) but on either of the upgrade you do (format and re-install or upgrade from 8.1 or 7) it's going to upset the installation of Xara (I think OS is one of the checks that the security DLL's looks at amongst many other things) and it'll save a lot of hassle in the activation process.

[handrawn]

not sure if mentioned before or made clear... but the 30 day period before you can deactivate either computer on the xara website is 30 days after the last activation of the two, not 30 days after the activation of the computer you wish to deactivate if you have activated the other one in the meantime.. well I hope that's clear

[mikeymopar]

not sure if mentioned before or made clear... but the 30 day period before you can deactivate either computer on the xara website is 30 days after the last activation of the two, not 30 days after the activation of the computer you wish to deactivate if you have activated the other one in the meantime.. well I hope that's clear

ermm...no
so what you're saying is if i get a 2 new computers and activate the software on one of them before i deactivate it from the first computer that i'm selling i can't activate it on the second new computer until the first two have been activated for 30 days???
purely hypothetical but that doesn't seem right. i would think one would be able to deactivate the software from a computer at any time.

heh.

[handrawn]

well I tried it - and my deactivate date shifted on the first computer to be in line with 30 days after I activated the second computer [which was activated about 2 weeks after the first]

ok I could have deactivated the first from within the program before I reformatted but I took the opportunity to 'test out' the site reactivation service

you can active/deactivate at any time on a working system from within the program - this is only for those times when you can't do that....

[ad1066]

I went and reinstalled Windows on my main PC because I just upgraded to SSD. I didn't remember to deactivate XDP before pulling the drive, so I'm running the trial version on both machines now (desktop and tablet). The good news is that I should be able to deactivate both previous installs from the website on the 20th (being 30 days out from when I originally installed XDP11 on both) and then reactivate, and in the meantime the trial is running just fine.

On the plus side, XDP on Windows 10 on an SSD runs *really* fast. Very happy with it.

-- Ben