Expert: Ran - 9/11/2009

Question
HI,
I have Coreldraw Essentials installed using XP pro, with Vista Business also in my computer.Am I able to upgrade my Essentials to a later version say Corel 4 into Vista & later into Windows 7 when available?? Kind Regards....Bob Whitehead


Answer
G'day Bob

CorelDraw runs great on XP, Vista and 7. Therefore I foresee no particular OS issues with what you propose. I am not familiar with Corel's particular upgrade options but however you obtain it, X4 is a fabulous package which will serve you well for many years.

I've not used a dual-boot XP/Vista system but presumably you would need to install CorelDraw one for each OS. Maybe you can use a common Program Files folder so you only end up with one physical copy taking up your drive space, it's worth a try. The important thing is that the correct registry entries are made in each OS's registry in order for the program to run.

I have read that although Windows 7 will install as an upgrade to a previous Windows version, it is preferable to do a clean install on a blank hard drive. I am using 64 bit Windows 7 on a home PC and it doesn't constantly annoy me like Vista did. If you decide to go for 64 bit, be aware that you will need more RAM. Mine's struggling on 2GB at present but a further 8GB has just been delivered (yay!) so I'll be fitting it later. CorelDraw is only a 32 bit app but these run happily on the 64 bit OS.

Good luck!