YAY!!!! It's back!

Bill, you're a marvel -- thank you SO much

I did a bit of a workaround, as the first line of your .reg file wasn't quite the same for my XP ('REGEDIT4' instead of 'Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00'), which I spotted having exported/backed up the existing key before changing it and comparing; so edited it in Notepad and it worked fine. Comparing the two it's clear there was at least one difference, in the first "Locked" value which on mine ended in 0 instead of 1.

It must have been the last 'tired' incident which did it. Shutting down evidently didn't happen soon enough or make it reset itself.

I don't know why I have such a problem with system resources, but it happens quite a lot in certain scenarios. Like when making web pages. PSP7 will be open while fiddling with images (several at a time), plus the plain text editor, various pages open in the browser at the same time while testing offline, Windows Explorer, and there could be one or two other applications running as well... that sort of thing, but nothing which seems out of the ordinary to me.

It doesn't really take too long in this sort of situation for a resources problem to crop up. It may not be PSP7 which starts throwing a wobbly, but something else. When testing pages offline for instance, there'll be a lot of page refreshing going on as changes are made (and constant resaving in the editor of the .html file for the same reason); or if I'm checking internal links I'll always open in a new window through the right-click context menu (because that's what I like doing online, when I'm surfing, so it's a habit). Maybe this sort of behaviour uses up lots of resources. Suddenly it might start refusing to open a new window from the context menu, though the link will still work with a normal left-click. Sometimes things start displaying in a larger plain font, like prompt messages or filenames in Explorer. They're sure signs the system's got bogged down and I need to close open applications and let it recover before carrying on.

Still, thanks to you PSP's sorted out and I really appreciate the help

Also grateful thanks to Bob for answering the call. I'm familiar with saving workspaces (yes, PSP7 does have this), and I do have a saved file, though I hadn't thought of using it before you brought it up; but not sure if it would have addressed this problem or not. Hadn't got around to trying before Bill chipped in.

I have no experience at all of the latest PSP versions. Mine's the anniversary edition of PSP7, but I did buy PSP8 and PSP9 when they came out. Installed them both briefly, and kept them there for a little while to try them out, but although there were more bells and whistles I didn't get on with them too well, and ended up uninstalling both. Maybe it would have been different if I'd come to either 8 or 9 as a new user. For what I do, PSP7 has all I need and more, and I'm so used to it. What I'm dreading is moving up to Vista or later when the time comes, as it looks from some of the threads here it doesn't all work in Vista?

Corel took Jasc over after PSP9, and I couldn't help feeling it could be the 'beginning of the end' for PSP. Maybe I was wrong, I wouldn't know, but it seemed the emphasis would be different in the hands of a much larger concern, as it so often is, and the whole ethos of what PSP began as (and what Jasc set out to do with it) would be lost.

I bought PSP X which came out shortly afterwards, just to 'have' really, but it's never been installed. From what I gather the program's now much more focused on photographic editing and enhancing, rather than what it set out as and was so good at -- creating graphics. Is that right? I think maybe it began going this way even before Corel took over. From what I hear it doesn't now include many of the features which are still familiar to a 'dinosaur' like me! Much more biased towards the editing and effects, rather than creating graphics from scratch -- would that be accurate?

PSP really was groundbreaking, bringing graphics creation and editing to the masses at reasonable cost when it first came out and in the early years. There had only really been Photoshop up till then: very costly and pretty much confined to the professional. Suddenly, because of Jasc, anyone could have a go at creating stuff for themselves without it costing a fortune. I didn't get 'into' it at the very beginning, but it was still very much in its heyday when I did (with PSP6).

Back then you literally couldn't move on the web without falling over PSP tutorial sites, PSP tips and tricks, PSP groups, PSP enthusiasts, not to mention endless sites for downloading even more endless tubes, graphics, masks, patterns, gradients, patterns, presets, backgrounds, tiles, web sets, brushes, animations etc -- all freebies made with PSP. Again maybe I'm wrong, as I don't look around for that sort of thing as I used to a few years ago, but my impression is it's nothing like that now? It might be hard for some of today's users (who came to PSP more recently) to imagine what it was like then -- I don't just mean what was available to download, but what a huge craze it was and the enthusiasm and buzz PSP created. It only intensified when plugins like Blade Pro came out, and suddenly everyone was into filters as well, spawning another few million sites with freebie presets and so on.

I've still got thousands of such files on my hard drive! -- even whole pages saved from sites which bit the dust years ago. It wasn't all good stuff, it has to be said, and there was plenty of rubbish around, but there was masses of real quality. Tubes in particular were a real innovation -- nothing like them had ever been available before PSP. I think they're still included?

Oh dear, what a ramble! Sorry... hope you'll forgive the lengthy trip down memory lane! I'll shut up now and get back in my box...

Very many thanks once more for curing my problem so quickly -- very glad I found you here