Vegas 5 Trial Frustrations -- aside from the UI :D

Comments

FuTz wrote on 5/4/2004, 4:53 AM
Ooooh boyyy.... not sure I'm gonna try this demo right now... I've had my share of troubleshooting with my computer for this last year .
Don't wanna add one more now...
Maybe in two weeks...
Orcatek wrote on 5/4/2004, 6:57 AM
System restore point is a very good option. I always take a checkpoint before and install for just this type of problem. This is a perfect example of why this feature was added to XP (yes MS did do something right). It has saved me many times from demo software or bad upgrades.

Another thing I do is run a product called virtual PC from microsoft. It then lets me install another OS or copy of one and run it in a window. I test the product there without messing with my production environment.

ken c wrote on 5/4/2004, 8:20 AM
I use roxio (now bought by symantec) "goback" software extensively, it's like winxp's system restore function, but much more powerful... it completely restores the registry and all files to, say a day ago, or an hour ago, whatever you want...

>> http://www.symantec.com/goback/

I would not run a pc without having it installed, it's saved my a-- more often than I can remember, eg if there's a driver install problem, or a demo install problem, just bang restart the system and restore back to yesterday (or whenever) and there you go.

you can also of course selectively restore back any files you've created in the intervening time as well, so no data loss.

it's one of my favorite, and most-critical, system utilities..

http://www.symantec.com/goback/



ken
vitamin_D wrote on 5/4/2004, 2:00 PM
...the demo is isolated to the machine in question, and not dependent upon a net connect to register.

The registration may block a second install from a specific IP, a specific name, a specific computer profile, or any combinaion of things that have nothing to do with the registry. In fact, since I've done my best to rid the registry of Vegas 5 entries, I'm betting this is the case. System restore would be pointless.

I'm about to do a clean WindowsXP install anyway, so I'll let you know.

- jim
filmy wrote on 5/4/2004, 7:09 PM
I might be off on this but it seems that your System ID plus your SN is what allows you to "acitvate" Vegas 5. Combine that with the new Vegas 5 "phones home" policy - what seems to happen is that info is sent home (Sony) and somehow that creates a cookie that is written to your registry - however this info is also on Sony's computer. So what happens is even if you uninstall and clean out your registry of all that is Vegas 5, Sony still has your info...so when you try to reinstall it and than "register" it you get the "expired" message, or the like. I tried this - when my 30 day trial expired after 1 1/2 days, at first I just kept trying to register like it asked - after about the 4th time I started look around and deleting things to see if something got messed up. What I did *not* do is try from another machine that has another ID, nor did I change enough things on my NLE machine to change the ID. My overly simple thought is this - Vegas phones home with your ID + SN and Sony say "Hey that ID has already been registered "x" times with that SN and if "X" is more than 1 time you are SOL.

But hey, I could be wrong. On paper it sounds like a great protection scheme though.
SonyJDodge wrote on 5/4/2004, 9:04 PM
Hey everybody,

For 99.9% of folks the trial installs and runs for 30 days, no questions asked. For some, some problem can occur during install or after running it and you think "hey, I'll uninstall and reinstall to try and fix this", but that doesn't work, because the trials only install once. If you run into this problem give us a call for help. vitamin_D, since your call to us (you spoke with Ted) we've developed some ways to help people out of the situation you are in (can't reinstall the trial without being asked immediately for a serial number). We aren't going to post the fix here for fear it may be abused, plus this situation is a rarity, but we'll be happy to help you out over the phone if you give us a call. 1-800-577-6642 9-5 M-F, CST.
vitamin_D wrote on 5/4/2004, 9:24 PM
Will my trial period be extended since I've lost some time?

Thanks,

- jim
Wolfgang S. wrote on 5/4/2004, 11:42 PM
@ Josh (SonyJ)

to ask you to call you is not a good/cheap option for somebody, sitting in Europe (different time, language problem, costs).

So, what support email can be used to get this information?

We have somebody sitting in our german vegas form, who has maybe the same issue.

Kr
Wolfgang

Desktop: PC AMD 3960X, 24x3,8 Mhz * RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB)* Blackmagic Extreme 4K 12G * QNAP Max8 10 Gb Lan * Resolve Studio 18 * Edius X* Blackmagic Pocket 6K/6K Pro, EVA1, FS7

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