Beware software companies that lock your software to a specific machine configuration

These days, many software vendors require you to "Activate" your software after purchase or they need an Internet connection to install. In many cases this means they are limiting your use of the software to a specific hardware configuration - your current machine configuration. Change a component in your system due to failure or upgrade and you could find your software no longer works !

Recently I found my CorelDraw would no longer work unless I restored a specific hardware configuration. Technical support confirmed this was due to it being locked to the hardware configuration. Even though I still had the original keycode I was told I needed to make a further purchase to use with a new configuration of my hardware.

DP Software does not lock its software to a hardware configuration. If you have a hardware problem and need to chnage to a different machine or you simply want to update your machine then there is no problem and no need to contact us.

Of course we do monitor for people who ubuse the system by running on large numbers of machines at the same time, uploading to file sharing services, selling copies or are invoved in credit card fraud. In these cases, we do have the ability to terminate their copy of the software. We have to protect against fraud but we don't think that should be at the expense of our true customers.

 

Windows versions

We make every effort to use documented Windows features and not undocumented tricks to give our software the best chance of working on new Windows versions without modification. We do not lock our software to a specific Windows version to force you to purchase new versions ( I have seen this in at least one cross stitch program). We are not however mindreaders and cannot predict what Microsoft will do in future versions.

All our software does come with 2 years of online updates so whatever new features are added during this time you can download for free (no matter how major the changes). After that, you do need to purchase additonal years of support to continue getting the latest versions. These are however low cost and cover all minor and major upgrades. No longer do you need to regret making a purchase because a new version comes out a few months later.

 

Incremental upgrades not major re-learning with each version

With our Platinum version we changed the way software is updated to prevent major re-learning with new versions and to prevent the unfairness of new versons coming out shortly after a customer purchases.

With the new system, new features are implemented, tested and released as an update as soon as they are available rather than saving them all for a major release. Access to these updates is free for 2 years and thereafter can be extended for a small annual fee.

We have a suggestion box for new features on the online forum. Often suggestions are added very quickly as part of the updates so customers have a very real input into how the software evolves. Suggestions are moved into the completed forum once they are released so you see what has been added in the past.

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