We believe a recent technology update issued by a third party is causing 2023 and 2022 (version 24.x) application versions of CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, and Corel DESIGNER to crash on launch. Rest assured, we are actively pursuing a solution to the issue. In the interim, Windows 11 and Windows 10 users can successfully launch each application with a workaround.

Workaround: Launch CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, and Corel DESIGNER applications without displaying the Welcome Screen. This can be set by a Windows Registry key that must be applied before opening the applications.

To apply the Windows Registry keys, download the attached Windows Registry key file to your local hard drive and double-click on the file. Note that you need local administrator rights on your PC to perform that operation.

Once you've applied the Windows Registry keys, launch your CorelDRAW Graphics Suite or Technical Suite applications as normal.

It is important you do not open the Welcome Screen in the affected applications, as displaying the Welcome Screen will result in the application exiting immediately. Do not click on the Home button in the top left corner above the drawing window, and do not use the Help menu > “Welcome Screen” command. 

[UPDATE - August 2, 2023] 

Now that a hot fix is available to address the application issue, users who have applied the workaround described above may want to revert the Welcome Screen display to its default status (i.e., show the Welcome Screen inside the applications). To do that, please apply the updated Windows Registry file attached to this blog post. It will reset the registry keys previously added to suppress the Welcome Screen. No other changes are made by that registry file.

Thank you for your patience in this matter and we'll provide an update as soon as we have a permanent fix. 

The CorelDRAW team.