OK, the program installed fine on Windows 10. I was a little concerned about the SPTD issue, especially when I went to File.net (info site about unknown files) which said "Description: Sptd.sys is not essential for Windows and will often cause problems."

I decided to try it anyway. Nice interface, tried to import some pictures and create a quick show using Slideshow Master. Put in some pictures, it asked me about adding music. Clicked yes, it took me to a site all in German that wanted money. Skipped the sound, clicked NEXT and the program crashed. It generated a crash report (I sent it) and the program completely shut down. It's a interesting looking program, but off to a bad start.

Pros:
-Batch import of images.
-Good balance of style - transitions aren't incredibly gaudy, nor are they completely useless.
-'Ken Burns' effects look great.
-Render time was about what I'd expect; on par with other similar caliber software.
-Storyboard view makes rearranging images much simpler than being tied solely to a timeline.
-Panel-like layout feature is similar to Adobe products; custom layouts are possible (VERY nice touch on this one!)
-Isn't obnoxious with 'buy now!!!111' nags.

Cons:
-Batch adding of effects to images is a bit awkward and unintuitive - you can Ctrl+Select in the Storyboard view, but there are no checkboxes or 'apply to all' buttons.
-The timeline's 'ruler' area doesn't move the play head (cursor) to the clicked point in time.
-Transitions aren't clearly labeled as to which two slides they're between.
-Loading time doesn't give indication that the program is actually loading; it looks like it freezes. This also happens elsewhere (changing views, adding/removing panels, etc.).
-AVI and MPEG 1/2 are the only supported export formats, unless you opt for the 'ultra' version (Really? Not even MKV or Quicktime at 720p?)
-Premiere shortcuts (spacebar to play, =/- to zoom in or out, respectively).

Joey

Downloaded to windows 10 without a hitch :) Its late so I won't try it out until tomorrow but with just the brief look around and of course reading the comments before I downloaded gave me a heads up on a number of things .
Looked through the get started help and can't wait to give it a go. Thanks for the gift .

Program installed fine on a Win 8.1 machine. Output is fine. I'm even more impressed with the quick replies by the company. Not sure I've seen someone from a software company reply to so many comments after visiting this site daily for a few years now!

how do I save it to give to someone

I downloaded this and put it on a stick for my daughter to install on her pc, which she did successfully.
I tried to install it on my own pc but it aint happening. Oh well never mind.
Looks like a nice bit of kit ..
Charlie, Glasgow , Scotland

Installed on Windows 10 -- no problems except it restarted my computer without allowing me postphone the restart. Not cool. The interface is ugly -- looks like they need a UI designer.

The User Manual for SlideShow 7 is here: http://www.aquasoft.net/manuals.as

Scroll down, and you'll see both "Online Help" and "PDF" options.

I installed the program on Windows 7 and all went well. After registering, I was able to open an example file and view that. However, I need to create an MP4 or file that will upload to YouTube. I don't see that option. When I click on Web, and the Web Gallery, it tells me the plugin is not installed and offers a link to a German site. I change the language to English, and it takes me to a completely different page. I went back and had CHrome just translate the existing page and it describes making the slide show into a website of its own, not creating a webtype file. How do I create the MP4?
Thanks,'
Mike

I have windows 7 pro 64 bit, it will not install. It says cannot start setup-the setuo file may be corrupt. I tried downloading again, but same things happens.

A free alternative (not implying it's as good or better) is Bolide Slideshow Creator. I recently used it to produce a slideshow for a memorial service, and it performed quite satisfactorily.

maybe show a sample here to see finished product

Reminds me of Proshow from Photodex. Nice software. Problem however. Won't let me NARRATE a SLIDE with the Record Button. Is this purposely disabled? Gives me error.

I didn't download or install this software.
I want to thank ric for posting about the SPTD.
I don't install software that installs SPTD if I know in advance.

I've had to carefully remove SPTD before & choose not to have to do it again .

I do not want to have this software install SPTD & then remove it .

To the author of this software . Let people opt out of SPTD during the install.
Or remove this entirely & let those that need SPTD install it themselves.

@Aquasoft Thank you taking the trouble to reply. Yes, I can see the advantage of being able to access download data and re-install but as this is a GAOTD offer, updates and the ability to re-install after the offer date is usually excluded - hence the panic with some of us to ensure that registration has been confirmed. Are you saying that re-installation at a future date will be possible with this giveaway just like the paid up version? If so, will installation to a different PC from the original be possible? (Always, of course, observing the licence restriction of installation being appropriate to only one PC)

The advantage of the registering process is that you have a customer log in area, where if your computer crashes, you get a new one, etc, you can always access your download files and re-download the program. It also allows you to get special upgrade pricing when ever you choose to go to a newer version.

Freeware alternative - I have been using a paid program to make slideshows for many years but it would not work on my new Win8 computer. I tried several freeware programs but none of them automatically rotated the pictures in order to display them in the rotation the picture was taken. You had to manually rotate the pictures taken with the camera rotated. Then I tried the freeware Microsoft Movie Maker 12, the latest version of Microsoft's Movie Maker program. It did automatically rotate the pictures. And it has all the other options I want like such as adding titles, music, and text, setting the display time for groups of pictures and adding transitions. It doesn't burn DVDs directly but I published the result as a .mp4 file and then used the freeware program DVDFlick to author and burn the DVD. I am happy with those programs.

installed on my windows 7 pro work computer without a hitch, registered and got the emails no problem, first one was to confirm my email, the second 'Thank you for registering with AquaSoft' in the subject had the key, which it took and started up. Looks like a great program as a giveaway of the day :)

on a few minute glance, it will take a little playing with, but I already seem to like it better than movie maker and power point. I caught myself saying WOW to a lot of the transition effects on the demo. I am going to enjoy using this software.

I have not tried to export anything yet, so I can not comment on exporting projects as of yet

I would say if you need to make slide shows, you do not want to miss out on this one. Thank you AquaSoft

Just to be safe I set a System Restore point before installing this.
It requires Direct X 9.0c
Got it installed and activated.
Noticed that in the last part of installation, it reported on screen that it was installing SPTD.
Tried it.
It is capable.
But way too complicated for average user who just wants a simple slide show.
It has a plethora of textures, effects, templates, etc.
I did not feel safe about that SPTD bit.
That is something that comes with Daemon Tools or Alcohol.
SCSI Pass Through Direct (SPTD) is a proprietary device driver and application programming interface (API) developed by Duplex Secure Ltd. that provides a new method of access to SCSI storage devices.
Sptd.sys is not essential for Windows and will often cause problems.
It is in C:\Windows\System32\drivers folder.
There is also a statement in Prefetch. SPTDINST-X86. EXE-2F329839. pf
SPTDinst-x86.exe is also located in Dist subdirectory of the Program Files folder.
Not sure if this would crash my PC on next reboot.
Since I have many other slideshow software and do not want to risk a PC crash, I uninstalled Slideshow 7 premium.
Please note the uninstall process does NOT remove the SPTD.sys and SPTDinst-x86.exe.
Remember to do that manually.
The did a system restore just to be double safe.

Software looks as if it could be very useful (see useful how-to videos on Ytube). Is there an offer to upgrade the offered Version 7 to the current Version 9 if we like the software?

Would they really charge $49.50 for a version that is 2 revisions old?

I wanted to register on their website and I can not afford.It says the offer is void in my country, Romania.

Strange that most of the comments say disappointment, yet it is showing 83% thumbs up.

Win 8 Pro took forever to install using all kinds of resources. On startup locked up computer. Rebooted with Time Freeze and uninstalled.

Installed on W10. Registered on web page but NEVER got the e-mail. Tried again with same e-mail (yes, it is correct) and it said that address was already registered but not confirmed. It would send another e-mail to confirm. Never came in either. First try to register was over 1/2 hour ago.

Hi All,

Installed OK on Windows 10. Registered. Runs well too but does not seem to have the Plugins to export the finished slideshow. Only the Demo plugin seems to be there. Have I installed it incorrectly?

Cheers, Tom

Well...I'm actually quite impressed, which for this type of program isn't easy to achieve...I'm used to using Proshow Producer, so anything else has to go some to come close...this actually did...quite a surprise!

Its nicely laid out and not exactly hard to use either. Like any program that deals with images its a bit of a learning curve, however if you take your time and have a bit of patience with yourself I'm sure you'll do fine with it. The only real 'gripe'...and not really a huge one, was was the lack of options when it come to output...Proshow allows to to produce show in DVD, Youtube, Facebook, Flash, cell phones & MP3 players etc. PC EXE, Video, Blue Ray, Vimeo formats, and webshows for your own website.

I can't see that being a big problem for most users though...I do this kind of thing on a semi - professional basis ( I'm pretty much retired now ) so I'm more likely to find faults where for most people they wont exist.

I think its a very useful addition to any photographers set of programs, ok...not the sophistication you get from other programs...but it IS free and does a respectable job....its a keeper for me.

How do I check if it's already activated after entering the activation code?

@ewluka You will probably have to turn off your anti-virus and possibly your firewall to allow installation. I've just had to do the same. It installs OK after that. If you do, remember to turn them back on!

@XP_man Like you I agree that it looks a very sophisticated program. Thought the interface would look quite daunting to someone who only wanted something simple. Following the palaver to get the registration code I input it and it said that registration would be confirmed at next restart. I've done that but nothing's appeared in confirmation. I can't even find anything on the interface about registration and searching the help file index returned "No trace" for "registration" as a search term. Did you have the same problem or were you able to find out that your registration had been accepted OK? Any help appreciated. Thank you

Installed, a to and fro e-mail palaver to get registration code, on opening a pleasing interface, this in XP, not listed as supported.
Possibly this will mean certain aspects of the program will not function, have to wait and see.

Found it easy to put images in, had problems with the text initially couldn't find where to enter it, but eventually I did.
This is a problem I found with this program, it is so sophisticated with so many functions that it is not obvious how to use them.
The help file although large could not answer a number of the questions I wanted to put to it.

The real disappointment came when I wanted to export to PDF, a somewhat confusing message regarding plug-ins appeared. Apparently I need one to use the PDF output the same applied to web output. I went to settings under extras as the plug-in message suggested but there was nothing there, neither was there information as how to get this plug-in.

Decided to seek help on this and it took me to a page on the Internet in German, no problems I thought I'll change to English but instead of changing the page to English it took me to another page that was no help whatsoever.

A very confused comment by a very confused user; the program looks powerful and sophisticated but I found it very difficult to use, it needs a much better help system.
It is expensive and I wonder if I am supposed to pay more money to get the plug-ins, without them it is not much use to me.