I've lost one of my favourite and easiest to use photo editing programs when my computer went poof! a while ago (my own fault for not backing up my back-up CD and not even the CD rescue program can rescue me on this one, sadly).

Thought I could simply find the program on a freeware site and re-download it. But each time I've tried, while it downloads just fine, it won't install (has a pop up 'error' box). Then I found the same program on another site, but this time 'shareware'. But the same problem arises when trying to install it, too.

So I'm wondering, is it legal to perhaps ask someone at a site such as ours, if they have this actual program - and if so, to 'share' it? But then I'm left with the quandry of trying to figure out using old internet addresses how to send the shareware money to the author, etc.

Crumb bum! (But at least it's taught me a valuable lesson - yup, I now have 2 CD back-ups of each of my favourite programs - gentle smile).

What does, MaraM, the popup "error" box say? Have you checked your hard drive to see if there are "widows" still there from the original installation that might be causing the problem? I would try to make the freebie work, since you have no guarantee that the shareware will install correctly.
Cheers,
John

Hi John,

Since I wrote the prior message, I managed to find another site that had a freeware version of the 'stand alone' program and it actually installed! Ever so exciting until I discovered that the moment I tried to open/use it, it too shot up a pop-up window - this time saying:

"Alive Colors.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience".

Sadly, there is no remnants of anything left on this computer as when it went poof!, the CD's (made the day I got it) were used to ''restore back to factory condition' and through a wee miscommunication, my programs weren't backed up onto a CD prior to the technician redoing it.

Thanks so much for pointing out there'd be no guarantee that the shareware would work either, John - you're right, I'll just keep on plugging away at searching the internet for every freeware download I can find for this program. (Have gone through all the ones Google found for me so off to try another search engine, perhaps with different results).

Kind thoughts,
Mara

Oh yes, nearly forgot what today was - Happy New Year's Eve, kind man!