Yes, this software is intrusive.

So I created a dummy email that is free and self destructs on hushmail.com to get the registration code, and even on install and activation it tried to upsell me on more software and even a landing page in another language I did not recognize!

Get past this, clear your cookies after landing on that landing page if it appears, and tell the pop ups on running the software for the first time, and opt out of intrusive tutorials, and this software allows you at hyper speed to name multiple photos in one batch, and edit them for seo purposes which will save me hours of time and hundreds of dollars hiring a assistant to do!

For this I thank you, finally a GOD that will make a huge impact in my SEO, as now I can easily edit thousands of photos to be posted in ways that Google wants to see in large batches with this software, including easy to use interface with checkboxes to edit multiple photos into other converted formats, like gif to resized jpg in just the right upload size to meet Wordpress, Ebay, and Facebook size standards easy!!

Also, I am running this on a windows 7 business laptop, and went in thru ccleaner to edit startup permissions and for the sake of startup time and cpu usage set the software to run and update only with my request, thus it no longer pings the internet, and I set it to not be used as a default program to open pics, videos, audio, thus avoiding any conflicts with my existing editing software.

Will gladly milk this for what its worth for the next year and next time this appears post a update, thank you!

I just did it again for the 4th time and it worked. YAY! Thanks GOD

Hello again. I still have not received the key for this program and I have installed and uninstalled it twice. I also signed up with Ashampoo on their site. When I click on "Request Key" nothing happens. If I click on "Continue" without the key, then it takes me to the same Ashampoo site but it's in Russian and I can't change it to English. But I've realized, after doing this a couple of times, that it is the same page as I signed up in, but in English.

I've never had a problem like this before.
Can someone tell me how to get the License Key for this program?

Thanks,

BBE

Tried several times to register. Checked inbox, spam, promotions folders... key never sent. Oh well.

I Have got the key, but I am unable to register. When I click on Buy/Register nothing happens. Any solutions?

Download and installed with no problems. As of yet, I have received no registration code.

For those that commented on my post #2 .... about spam.

I did nu-subscribe.... however, either you have to do that for EVERY downloaded program, or they ignored my request. I did notice that after I asked the spam to stop, they started sending it to me from people... such as, "Bob at Ashampoo wanst to tell you about this special offer".... of course, Bob doesn't exist, just using that as an example.

As for it not being spam, its marketing... seriously, any unwanted Email is spam.... and when you think about it, cures for AIDS is also marketing.... but its still spam.

I'd really love to enjoy Ashampoo programs again, but even though I have not installed one in over 12 months, I still get the occasional spam Email form them.

If they want me to respect them, they need to start respecting me.

Its that simple.

Giovanni,
It's good to see you back on a regular basis again.

Regarding your above link, that is ONLY for the serial number but where is the software?? I did a search & all I can find is crapware toolbars that want to install loads of worthless junk. You can always tell its bad when the download has a .exe at the end of the link which NO ONE should ever install those.

Please post the link to the software for ACDSee Pro 5.

Many Thanks in advance.

I am also a Ashampoo fan who has been using Ashampoo products for years and like them a lot. They have chosen to give me free software and I will respond to them by reading and considering the marketing materials they send me, just like Sears, Canadian Tire or any other company that I have said yes to receiving their materials. I could unsubscribe easily but some of their discounts are worth considering. I have never ever gotten Spam from Ashampoo and appreciate the giveaways they supply to this site. The software works just fine and I appreciate it so thank you Ashampoo and Give away of the day!

Bought Photoshop Elements 10 a few years ago but will try this out. I'm sure it might not have all the bells and whistles of Elements, but the price is right and it seems to have similar features (Not to mention the current version of Elements 12 is $65+ on Amazon)

To those complaining about email spam from Ashampoo: Adobe tries to update their software (Reader, Flashplayer, etc) almost every single day. At least you can put the emails in your junk folder.

I agree with #48 Powder Skier. It is annoying when you are directed to submit your email and the Ashampoo sign-in page pops-up. Nothing in the installation message said anything about having to become a member of their website.

My now quite old free version of Photo Commander proved to be limited but good, fast and easy to use for the features it did have. I expect today's *free* offering is more robust, and therefore an excellent value. I plan to download it later today and give it a try.

To see all the whining and complaining here about spam, you'd think the company's e-mails had the power to jump out of your PC, follow you around the house and haunt you until you finally buy something. Ashampoo's e-mails can be stopped by request or, in Outlook, marked as junk and sent to the junk folder where you'll never see them unless you go and look. How intolerable is that? Not very. Of course, by doing that you foreclose the chance to pick up a handy bargain now and then.

If promotional e-mails from a company that has provided a useful program strikes you as an imposition, please consider how your drama-queen complaining about a very minor and easily dismissed nuisance seems to others.

Regarding comment #4: Yeah, Adobe's pricing for their monthly deal is ridiculous and I won't do it. I'm getting better with Gimp every day, lol. The one good monthly subscription I do like is Office 365. For $10/month I'm happy with it.

I've used Ashampoo Burning Studio for several years and I do like this company. The 'spam' emails stop immediately upon request. I'll be giving this freebie a thorough workout.

Thanks for another great freebie!

@27 John Duqesa

Uninstall try version, then install the
gotd setup,then follow the instructions(readme.txt).
I hope this will work for you.

@Marcus: that is exactly what I have been doing for about 7 years now.
All software emails go to a spam email account. Just do an ixquick.com search (like DuckDuckGo)for temporary email or go to netzero.com or yahoo.com and sign up.

I'll rather have Ashampoo's 'spam', which isn't actually spam as I can subscribe/unsubscribe as I wish, than all the spam post on the thread moaning about Ashampoo's spam. I know which one is more annoying.

@42 - Thomas - Thanks for the heads up. I was able to get their registration code easily (as I had already registered sometime in the past) by asking to re-set the password on their log-in page.

After I re-set the password the registration did as you posted, even put the registration code in the box for me.

For any not getting a registration email from Ashampoo, and if you really want this software, go to their website, register, and you will get the code immediately.

But REALLY Ashampoo? One would ASSUME that filling in an email like you asked on the install page would have done the job of registering so you could have sent us the registration code (still have not gotten ANY registration email). Please in the future tell us EXACTLY the correct process to get a registration code, don't make us guess.

Excellent software but not-well-explained registration process.

Thanks.

I love this site and I rarely have any problems but with this, I seem to be having one. Everything about this program is in Russian!
It did download in English but all the writing is in Russian.
And I did not get a License Key.
What do I do know?

For those who complain about Ashampoo "spam" --- in every piece of Ashampoo software there is provided a way to opt out of receiving the so-called "spam" (which is really just announcements of new versions or of very substantial discounts on older versions of the software). Look in the Settings menu, you'll find it, or better yet, go to the website for a full explanation of how to opt out of these messages.
I have very little sympathy for those who complain about Ashampoo "spam" without reading the instructions, because the company gives a very clear explanation of how to opt out of receiving their messages. I have had nine Ashampoo products installed on my pc for many years and am never bothered by announcements or messages because I took the time to read and understand how to prevent those I don't wish to receive, and allow those I want (for example I have no objection to learning that I can get last month's 39 dollar program for $4.95).
Ashampoo makes good software, don't knock it because you don't like the advertising.

Ashampoo emails info.

If you are not getting an email try your deleted email account or even your spam account. Found mine in deleted.

#16 Giovanni

Thanks for the great link. I got the ACDSee Pro 5 easily because I am already a member of ACDID.

You are the best.

I had no problems installing this softeware great price (free) you do need to navigate through the Russian language ,use the interpreter app. I got the activation code when finished you must click on the link designated ,once again use the interpreter. A good application by far.

#44 mike
The modern trend for many developers appears to be that their software is for rental which only lasts for a year even though there is no additional cost to the developer.
This is totally unacceptable as it would be if your car computer held you to ransom by refusing to work after one year unless you paid for it again.
As a programmer it is obvious that much of the $50 software offered today is a few days work; purchase a ready-made component put an interface to it and charge some daft price, they are damaging the Windows PC software industry something I think would be dreadful.

Same thing! Over 8 hours, no registration code. I looked at their support page for help and all it told me was to check my "junk" mailbox with no other suggestions. VERY annoying. I already uninstalled Photo Commander 10, which I really liked, so now I don't have anything!

Hi, minor thing really regarding viewing/skins in Configuration (change skin) - Program states: 'The Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 default installation installs various different skins'.. Well, 'various' here means 2 - Default and Dark. Previuos Versions had also 'Classic'. I suppose for simplicity 2 is enough? Like I said - it's minor, but for those wondering is there more skins, did I miss something? I'd say no.

Yes, this Program is heavily 'advertised', as it places 2 more shortcuts on Desktop after installing - 'Your Software Deals' and 'CleverRich.com', so that might irritate, but I'm sure they can both be binned. Program itself is all in all a decent Photo Editing Software! Thanks for this Newer Version. It keeps all previous Versions intact and doesn't 'Unregister' them automatically, or after short period of time.., which I personally find appealing and rather refreshing?:)

I concur with those who like Ashampoo products. They're very good products. I just don't get the spam comments. Ashampoo WILL send to many product emails out IF you don't go to your account and simply turn off the newsletters. I've been using these folks for many years and I never get emails from them. Having said that, after I registered this product, they did RESET my settings to receive two newsletters. I simply turned that off and I don't expect to receive any more from them. I like this product, but I've grown to like Zoner so I installed it but I will probably use Zoner more.

Over 8 hours, used two different gmail accounts to register, still no registration code. Most annoying.

I find it amazing that so many people are willing to take their products for $FR.EE but then complain when they get their marketing emails. Why complain? Don't want to see their emails, declare them spam and have your email filter them out for you so you never see them. Why is that so much difficult for folks? You're getting a great piece of software for $FR.EE. Or better yet, go buy an equivalent piece of software from another company... and see if you don't get their marketing materials...

Ashampoo makes outstanding software and I have several of their products installed on my systems, and they work very well.

Quite honestly, I have tried a lot of Ashampoo's software that has been offered here and I don't feel like they send too much spam. I probably don't get more than one or two a week and I don't feel like that is excessive. I'm glad they are willing to offer some of their programs for free.

I opened the webpage for the key from the program. I already had a password so that went smoothly. When I closed it, I saw another tab that was in a foreign language. So if anyone get that, just open it from the program.

Tried to activate by following instructions. Clicked "Request FREE full-version key" button in the popup window- nothing happened. Went to Help/Ashampoo Support- nothing happened. Help me please or this is toast.

#37: "Speaking of programs that are too far out of date, I have no problem with companies that want to offer their software by term subscription. That’s not greed, it’s reality – keeping a program up to date is an ongoing investment. What good is paying a one time for a program when after a few years it has none of the recent improvements and is no longer compatible with the operating system or with other supporting software?"

I politely beg to differ... It is greed, & from a purely business perspective, there's nothing wrong with it if you're running a biz. No offense to the Apple fans out there, Apple makes more profit from their product sales than a good many companies -- they're the envy of many, including top brass like Ballmer when he was leading Microsoft.

Now a company like Adobe will try to sugarcoat it, giving you all sorts of reasons why them making more money off you is actually in your best interests, & if you want to drink the Kool-Aid, enjoy. The traditional biz model is you improve your product line so current & new customers alike will purchase the latest model or version. If you fail to improve your product, or the price is too high, you lose many of those sales. With a subscription model, charging too much &/or improving too little [or not at all] doesn't matter -- you still pay, & they have less incentive to improve their products. If they want to cut development costs, e.g. getting rid of or reassigning coders etc. why not -- it's more money.

Now someone might counter that you can always cancel the subscription, but it's not so easy when companies adopt similar tactics to the cell carriers in the US -- cancel your contract & there are penalties to pay.

Very basic and limited, but huge and slow. It has a dcraw-based raw plugin, but no 16-bit support. I have tried the slowest level of denoise and it is really slow, but it produced the worst sample in my denoise collection. Some tools work well, some are worse than in many freeware editors. Many, like chromatic aberration correction, are missing.

If you have already signed up on Ashampoo's site - you don't have to wait for an email - jus click - and copy (it even pastes it in the box for you). o'well, everything went perfectly (Win 8.1, 2TB, 8Gb, 3.7 Ghz Intel) Thank for your offering today & if I find something later - I will pass it along. Have a great day!

Ashampoo Photo Commander is one of many, many photo organizers for people who keep photos on their PC or laptop, rather than have them stored just on-line... Many [perhaps most?] people use their cells rather than a camera to take pictures, & it's faster/easier to upload them than it is to get those pictures on their hard drive. In fact that's so popular many cameras can upload pictures the same way, &/or you can buy a SD card for in-camera picture storage with built-in WiFi. Some companies, particularly Microsoft, want to provide you with the best of both worlds, where you upload your pictures, but since your cloud storage is connected to Windows on your PC/laptop, it's as if they were on your hard drive from the start.

Some organizers just focus on the basics, cataloging your images. Many offer some sort of editing capabilities. And a 3rd class of organizer is added on or built into a full fledged image editing program -- I *think* the most popular example of this 3rd class is PaintShop Pro [I could be wrong]. If you use a somewhat better camera you can save the pictures you shoot in RAW format [I'll explain more in a moment], & some organizers specialize in working with that -- Adobe's Lightroom holds the top spot there, though several companies are trying to challenge Lightroom's dominance, e.g. Corel with AfterShot Pro.

Ashampoo makes software that's easy to use -- that's their primary focus -- & that's the reason you might choose Photo Commander over the many alternatives. It is not a full or complete photo editor by any means, but it will let you do a little bit with the photo's you've shot. Zoner, which seems very popular on GOTD, does much more, but they also have tutorials & such to help you learn the software -- many I think will feel Photo Commander's even having a help file or manual is overkill.

Photo Commander is light weight when it comes to its impact on Windows. It does its job well, letting you organize your photos, & if you want you can perform minor edits, all with the gentlest of learning curves. I bought it for my wife's PC -- while she can, she's just not into taking loads of pictures or working with photos, but family still sends her some.

OK, I mentioned RAW up above. Whether built into your cell or tablet or on its own, a digital camera has a sensor that captures all the light hitting it from the lens. Electronics turn that *Raw* data into a picture, normally a jpg file. But jpg is lossy, meaning some data is thrown out to keep the file size down. Ans at the same time that they're creating that jpg, the electronics [& software with a cell or tablet] try to improve the photo you just took, adjusting the picture so that hopefully you'll be happy with it, never mind the light wasn't quite right & so on.

A RAW image file has All the data, but it's not an image you can look at without special software that translates that raw data into a picture. If you're going to edit your pictures, having them in the RAW format gives you more to work with. It's popular enough, as cameras have gotten cheaper, that mass market software like Zoner works with RAW images. DxO's Optics Pro lets you save your work as .dng RAW image files, so you can continue working on them in an editor. Lightroom specializes in non-destructive editing -- your original RAW file is still there so you can always change your mind [& your edits] -- and it's very good at letting you apply the same editing &/or adjustments to a group of pictures all at once... if you took a bunch of pictures at say a birthday party, you can easily adjust them all for the room lighting where they were taken.

I like Ashampoo products. Their giveaways are not only great but the best part is that they offer to sell you their software at heavily discounted prices. I have 4 licensed copies of Burning Studio 12 and I don't have a problem with keeping them licensed (2 were giveaways and 2 were purchased). I would download today's offer but I already have it from another giveaway.

A lot of people claim that in giving you offers for all of their products that this is spam.

It's not really.

It's just plain old marketing.

There are many ways to manage your mail to filter out what you don't want so if the receipt of further mails is an issue, then make a little effort to add such things into junk folders etc.

I have found that Photocommander is one of the few useful products from ashampoo and whilst there are other products out there that have some or many features for free, it does the job it claims to.

Very lightweight in operation and fast too.

My only query with this one is as to why it's a 157Mb download.

This seems rather large for such a program.

Other than that, I can't see much to complain about.

Whether you consider it spam or not, I recommend having a Hotmail or Gmail account solely for registering software, etc. If unsubscribing doesn't work, you can easily set up a filter to divert all mail from a given company to its own folder or you can block it completely. If registering software with some company results in third-party spam, then it's only going to that account, not your main one.

For those that say they use this program, Zoner Photo Studio, and ACDSee, I'd like to see some more detailed comments on the features, particularly in the area of photo management since there are already lots of photo editing tools. For example can they store added comments and keywords in the photo file as well as in a separate database? (a distinguishing feature of Zoner) Do they link with Google Maps to show the location of photos with lat/long coordinates (current Zoner does, my old ACDSee doesn't) Can they identify duplicate images at different resolutions across all the indexed folders? Personally I am using Zoner, but I still use my paid copy of ACDSee 10 for finding duplicates even though its otherwise too far out of date for most things.
Speaking of programs that are too far out of date, I have no problem with companies that want to offer their software by term subscription. That's not greed, it's reality - keeping a program up to date is an ongoing investment. What good is paying a one time for a program when after a few years it has none of the recent improvements and is no longer compatible with the operating system or with other supporting software?
And regarding spam from Ashampoo, I do get product promotion messages from them in the account I use for free software products, but it's not too excessive. Surely it's not unreasonable to expect some promotional messages from a company that gave you their software free in exchange for your email address?

Having eventually got the interface under control by using menu item View, and choosing the style of browser it is possible to see the true worth of this program.
To be honest I'm pretty impressed as it will be a useful addition to my image software but it will not be my first choice for an image editor but very useful to find what's where and probably others of its many features.
Marketing, spam, surely spam is marketing you don't want, did not request, so call it marketing spam or whatever I still find it very annoying!

I have this and use it over other photo programs I have such as Zoner (which is probably better, but I'm used to Ashampoo, and XNView which is free and very similar). Rather than repeat what's already been said, here are a few of my observations:

It is quick and easy for converting other formats to jpg, resizing (picture and file sizes), and cropping - my most frequent need other than sorting and deleting.

Sometimes, especially if I'm in a folder with a large number of pictures, I get an error that the file cannot be opened (sorry, I can't reproduce or remember the exact error message). Usually, at that point none of the files associated with Ashampoo Photo Commander will open and I have to choose "Open With..." from the right click context dropdown in Windows and select another program. Photo Commander simply won't launch until I reboot. This isn't often, but I wanted to note it the next time GAOTD featured the application. Thanks for featuring this even though I already have this version.

I don't know why, but when I went to register the program, it took me to a Ashampoo site that was not written in English (it was using a different alphabet - kind of like Hebrew or Russian).

If your looking for a program to organize and tweak your photos, Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 should fill the need. Ashampoo makes and gives away many excellent programs. Their so-called "spam" are merely advertisements for their own software. I find it informative.

The only problem with install is that a number of the forms to get the key appear in Crylic (sp?) Google translator got me through, but watch for the one asking if you want additional software.

Okay, so if anyone else runs into the same problem I had, here is my solution: Instead of letting it create its own installation folder, create one yourself and choose it. Then installation continues.
However, I still don't know what other software they were offering me because it was all in some other language. lol

Guys and girls, some things go pretty wrong here. I never have received a single spam mail from Ashampoo in more than 5 years. Maybe there was a discount, promotion or special offer but that isn't what you can consider spam, it's marketing.

Ashampoo is a software company and as a company they wanna sell and market their products and they have a big marketing strategy for their product line and that is what they do. Spam is when you would register with Ashampoo and at the same day you receive third-party emails from unknown senders that never existed before, that is spam.

For emails, you can simply go into your Account Settings and opt-out immediately http://i.imgur.com/mUIsAlX.png and you will never receive a single "promotional" email - what you call spam. Yes, it requires you to log-in into your Ashampoo Account and you need to perform those steps yourself, no one takes your hand and forces you into the direction, not a big deal if you aren't lazy or a "saw and forget" person, it requires a small portion of your time and attention but that should be worth it instead of blaming everyone else for spam if you don't bother.

Most people doesn't seem to know what spam really is and looks like. And to be honest, if you use your private address for giveaways, it's your own fault, make a new one only for giveaways and stop crying about something that doesn't exist - a spam issue.

With regard to all the talk of "spam" from Ashampoo. Emails are not spam when you opt into receiving them, as you did when creating your account with them. This is called 'Marketing'.
If you do not wish to receive it, simply scroll to the link at the bottom of the email, as per the CANSPAM Act, and 'unsubscribe'. It will not effect your Ashampoo account.
A simple and effective way to control your email.

As for the software, I have been a user of their software tools for several years. Their software is light weight and easy to use. Even for first time users. Customer support is very good.

OK, great program and you can unsubscribe from their spam-mails, but I see two new icons on my desktop that point to some spam-looking progs seem to be residing now in my windows system32 folder

Cleverreach.com link
YourSoftware url

They do not show up in my list of software as uninstallable programs

Can I safely delete the icons and that will be the end of it? Or do I need to go on a hunt? Not pleased that these icons showed up and hope there are not some idiotic invasive progs that I have a hard time getting rid of!

I have downloaded and unzipped this twice and both times the SetUp gets to the point where it's offering other software downloads but no software is shown - just the spots to accept or decline. However, it is stuck there so I cannot accept, decline, or cancel.
Am I the only one having this much trouble??
Can anyone offer a solution?
Thanks a bunch!

I accepted their offer to try version 11 last year for a month. Obviously that has expired. Now that I have downloaded this free offer, it detects that the product was already previously installed, so I don't get it free, I get a pop up window to tell me that I can pay for the software. There's no way to click on a link to get the free registration.

They really should have thought about this before making the offer. I like ashampoo products and the marketing doesn't bother me in the least. However, I am vastly less impressed now.

I've never had a problem with Ashampoo. I've had problems with computers failing and loosing everything,.. so doing new ones, thank god,.. Ashampoo actually has all your serial #s you had for their prgs online for you.
ONCE IN A WHILE you'll get offers from Ashampoo,.. so what? The amount of spam I get from other places is a lot worse.
BTW,.. sorry to hear you had problems with the Burning studio,.. must be something else in your machine that was trashing it. Mine is fine.