UPDATE PROBLEMS

Xara pops up a window telling me there is an update, 17 to 18, but I had to download and install it FOUR TIMES before it finally installed. The first couple of times it seemed to go through the motions, then popped up an UNinstall window. The first time I closed it and there was no update. The next time I let it go through the uninstall process, thinking it might uninstall 17 and replace it with 18, but at the end everything was the same as it had been. On the third time it seemed to go through the motions but did nothing and it wasn't until the fourth time it downloaded that I got a sequence of dialogue windows that made it seem like it was working properly and it did. FOUR TIMES!!!!

Even then, it doesn't show up as a recent install, so I had to go looking for it in Start and pin it.

And why, oh why does it not install over v17? Believe it or not, I have better things to do with my time than manually uninstall old versions of software and I have much greater need of the extra half a gig of storage that the old version takes up. Overall, it makes Xara seem like amateur hour.

For the record, I was installing it on a Surface Pro 4 with a 6th Gen Core i7 and 16GB of RAM.

this is a magix issue not a xara one

if you mosey over to the xara website you will see that xara have new product called 'cloud' and 'pro+'; these are subscrition models, if you don't renew you lose; these are the only programs now distributed/supported by xara - current version is 21

all the legacy programs where you don't have to renew, currently at ver 18, are now distributed/supported by magix; xara still do the programming but it stops there, they have washed their hands of support and the compilation of installation packages for these

there is lots and lots of comment here on TG about this, both the direction the company has gone, and the specific issues that have cropped up such as the one you mention

I have moved to pro+

I am glad to see the back of magix to whom xara product is just another item in their portfolio, and possibly not as important to them as we might wish...

Sorry, I do not do subscriptions. I only upgraded to v17 last year, from v14, I think. And I have even less interest in any product that requires me to be on line to use it.

When I go to xara.com I see a site that appears to be aimed at office workers, not creative professionals. I don't even see a product name anywhere. It's like a completely different company with the same name and nothing of interest to me.

Overall, it looks as if Xara no longer has much to offer me, whereas I have no problems with the way Magix does business. At least they seem to be offering software for creative artists. When they took on SoundForge, it got better and better so I have to wonder why Xara hasn't flourished similarly under the Magix banner.

subscriptions are not for everyone [no need to be sorry ;)] - I don't use the online only cloud program either, just pro+

it is a differenr company - it is now xara GmbH based in Berlin - I believe the old xara group limited may still exist somewhere in the background, but I am not sure

I like soundforge [also use musicmaker] - but there is no 'soundforge GmbH' or the equivalent in direct competition elsewhere, only other product