who said anything about a CD?????????

I should have looked at #23 before I jumped into that question !! sig101, I think we have the right answer and an understandabily upset third party. Delores I feel confident if you can and are willing that you try and follow sig101 instructions and it should work.If you do try, STAY away from the CD. Good luck

sig101 The CM has Marc Collins with a serial number not mine expired date Jan.2003. I have to continually enter in my name and serial number and update the configuration and it updates however whenever I try to work with the progam, I discovered it changed back to this name and serial number with the expired date again.

It took me a long time to figure out what the problem was why I couldn't access or download or work with the program. Its shows its expired in his or her name......

All has been backed up on CD that was previous downloaded however it won't let me in newgroups!!!!!! Been there, done that, uninstalled, reinstalled, disabled antivirus systemworks 2002 professional, no virus reported, first thing I looked for,it cleans cookies auto each time,I have found no other problems on the system.

I will try the ideal of uninstalling and reinstalling from the site, it might get rid of the problem, however when my subscription runs out I want be able to use this CD and my downloads, I won't be allowed to after it expires right? Paying $49.98 it says I will be able to continue to use what I have downloaded with my CD. Is that going to be possible????
Thanks for your comments

Thanks yrag I will try installing the new StardockCentral. Is this compatiable with Windows 2002 Professional or only for XP?
When installing downloads such as WinStyles, windowblinds, do theses install on your CD within the programs [as I could never get it to do that] or just on the files on the hard drive? All theses downloads I have on backup should unzip to the appropiate files within the programs?

The newsgroups are accessible to anyone. I cruised the newsgroups long before I became a Stardock customer. It's all done through your newsreader (presumably OE). So OD or CM should not have anything to do with that. I can't imagine how they would.

When your subscription runs out, if you don't renew, you keep everything you already have. The apps (assuming you get them to work) will still function. All it means is that with an expired subscription to OD you won't be able to get new upgraded versions of the apps from Stardock.

I far As know Stardock Central works with both 2000/XP. Forget for the purpose of installation that you even have a CD. Load the programs thru Stardock Central (it works the same as Component Mgr, just newer) Click on Windowblind app. in SD App. and it will ask you if you want to install..chick yes and hopefully you'll be off to the races. It will write to your Hard Drive..this is normal and NOT A PROBLEM. If all that works keep loading other apps. in the same fashion. The skins (CD) you have can be unzipped to a Temp Folder on Hard Drive. If they're Windowblinds then open that app. drill to Temp Folder click on selected file and hit load. You have a ways to go before you get there.

My understanding is that SDCentral is compatible with W2K, XP and W98x.

Install it (or CM) and the other stardock apps downloaded through it onto your hardrive. They have default locations to go to when they install. It'll set up the OD directory in "Programs" and all the apps like WB, etc will have their own folders in the OD directory. (You can then back them up to a fresh clean CD if you wish for backup purposes only.)

Frankly, I'm not sure how you're using the CD you keep mentioning. Are you talking about an original OD CD from Stardock? Do you also have a backup CD of the apps and/or skins that you made yourself? Are you running the apps off your CD? Sorry, but I'm confused.

I've never had a Stardock CD and everything's been downloaded from SD and installed on my hardrive. The apps do have to be on the hardrive in order to work. If you're trying to run apps off the CD (and I say this because this is the only thing I can figure based on what you've said and the problems you seem to be having or I may just be misunderstanding) that's why you're having problems. If the programs aren't on your hardrive, like WindowBlinds or Winstyles, for example, they're not installed and won't work.

Apologies if I've seriously misunderstood what you've said, but you keep mentioning the CD and I can't think why a CD is necessary because it isn't. It's good to make backups of your programs to a fresh CD for safekeeping, but that's not how to run the programs on your PC.

never gave any thought that CD might be install disk..that would answer a lot of questions.