I had to uninstall X6 for a while until some other issues are fixed, but that's another story. Once I did a repair on X5 and uninstalled the shell extension and reinstalled the X5 version, then ran the SP3 update, I have file icons back in the file open dialog, but with the preview pane active, I still get "This file can't be previewed" instead of the multi-page preview it should have for newer files and the first page preview for older files. I've associated draw files with X5, and everything else works fine, except the file preview.
Any clues as to what to do next? Other posts only seem to suggest what I've already done.
In Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs do you have a Corel Graphics Windows Shell Extension -- and if so, right click on it, go to support information -- does its version begin with 15 or 16 ?
harryLondon said: In Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs do you have a Corel Graphics Windows Shell Extension -- and if so, right click on it, go to support information -- does its version begin with 15 or 16 ?
It's version is 15.2.0.686 - I had to install the last service pack for 15 to get it working right for the file thumbnails themselves, but still no good on the actual file preview. Just something in the registry I imagine, but where?
As far as I can see, there are two places where the shell extension might be installed:
So I think you should first check which folder contains your 15.x shell extension and then search the registry for shell extension, ignoring any finds that do not specifically mention Corel. Make sure they are pointing to the same path.
One other thought .. you're not trying to see previews in CDR files that were created under X6? I wouldn't expect that to work if they were saved in X6 format (and maybe even saving them as X5 might not have generated the proper preview images). The best test is probably a new file created in X5.
Thanks for the reply, but I'm on Windows 7 and I have:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Corel\Shared\Shell\Extension
with these two folders:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Corel\Shared\Shell\Extension\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Corel\Shared\Shell\Extension\x86
Looking through the registry, it seems there are keys pointing to both.
There is also a folder here:
C:\ProgramData\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5
But it's empty, I need to check on another Win7 system to see if there should be anything there. There are a few mentions in the registry about it.
Another folder here:
C:\ProgramData\Corel
Contains some files, mostly looks like service pack stuff and tips & tricks or something like that, nothing about shell extension.
The file preview doesn't work for any version of Draw file I try to preview, all the way back to version 5.
I'm trying to avoid a complete re-install of Draw 15, but it's looking more like I'm going to have to.
Looking at a machine that has had X5 but never had X6 on it, I see only references toC:\Program Files\Common Files\Corel\Shared\Shell Extension
All files in that folder are version 15.x
It has no subfolders (so no x32 or x64)
If it was the 64 bit version of X6 that you installed, that would account for the subfolders. It is probably OK for the registry keys to point to the x32 subfolder if they point to a file with a 15.x version number, but I would say any key that points to the x64 folder is likely to be wrong and possibly the cause of the problem.
Thanks, I'll look into it further when I'm back from vacation next week, I have another Win 7 system that never had 16 on it, I just need to do a close comparison and I don't have the time or desire to do that before I leave this afternoon.