Hello, I am having trouble running Xara X (yes, ancient CD version) on Windows 7 64-bit Professional and was wondering if anyone else can see if they have the below problem?

When I try to use Xara X, I notice the time it takes to display hidden layers is somewhat sluggish and not instant like how it normally runs on my slower XP machine. It seems to gradually refresh from the bottom to the top of the artwork, depending on the number of objects on the selected layer. When I use the hand tool to move around the canvas or zoom out, the screen usually turns blank and I am not able to see anything until I restart the program.

I discovered that if I run the program in XP or Vista compatibility mode, Xara X will run fine without any of the above odd behavior. HOWEVER, the problem with using this program in compatibility mode is that whenever I start it up, my custom controlbars do not appear (it just loads up the basic default controlbar and forgets all my previous controlbar configurations). Even if I leave other pre-set controlbars open (ie. gif animation, imagesetting, button pallete, etc...) they will disappear after I exit and re-open Xara X.

This is a bit of a nuisance since it takes me about 5-10 minutes to customize my toolbars each time. I am aware that it's possible to save and load custom toolbars using Xareg XML setting, however I was hoping someone is able to suggest a more permanent fix and somehow force xara to remember and load controlbar settings under compatibility mode.

Notes:

- Xara was installed from CD and run as administrator.

- Custom controlbars aren't remembered. Other settings in the 'Page Options' are remembered however (ie. file list size, units, etc...)

- I also tested a copy of Xtreme 2 and the same issue was observed (doesn't remember custom control bar settings but does remember 'page options').

- If I customize my controlbars and then close xara, then change the compatibility to XP (w/ admin priviledges), and then reopen Xara X, my previous controlbar settings appear. BUT, if I shut down Xara and reopen it again (still under compatibility mode), they are gone for good.

- I have later versions of Xara that work fine under Windows 7, but I still love and use Xara X as it has some important features that are absent in newer versions (plus I like the simplicity of the interface).


P.S> Does anyone know how to get Xara to display only .xar and .bak files by default in the open/save dialog window? I seem to have an issue where it is displaying 'all files'.