Ronnie, I have had good success, when always extracting the files from the zip file, before trying to install.

If you had the program before, it doesn't show you the opportunity to enter the new code. In one of the little icons along the top, right of the program, you have to remove the old code, to gain access to entering a new one. Then a key icon will appear in the menu bar, on the left, within the program. Click on the key icon to enter the new code.

Alex Magen, Maybe you should try to upgrade your browser if you haven't already done it, I use Firefox and it works fine for GAOTD.

Scott, I do wish that vendors who have this requirement would let you know up front. There are many times, when I am using my computer for multi-tasking and I do NOT wish to restart my computer, and take the chance that MS is going to want to install their updates during the reboot. If I were informed, I could finish my work and install the new program at a convenient break time.

Scott,

>"did other folks get that message (or am I remembering wrong and it is normal for WinX installs to restart the computer)? "

I was caught off guard by that too today. I checked my local history and see that versions 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, and 3.8.0 did not have the prompt to reboot. I have other history that is archived and not readily accessible, so indeed this one was odd.

frank howard waters, The link provided above worked fine for me:

https://www.winxdvd.com/event/gotd.htm

dan, Hmmm was the previous version installed within the last 6 months? If so, the new version may run out when that first 6 months is over????

rich, I only install software with lifetime licenses, which v3.8 & v3.9 were.

dan, that's probably because it is still version 3. Now Version 4 will more than likely be an incorrect key for an upgrade.

Terry, I ment incorrect KEY, (not Ket).

Terry, I agree, since that's probably considered to be a "major" release.

tracy hartley,

This has happened to me before, and I discovered that the culprit was my firewall.

Louis,

When you want to back up one of your DVDs by burning it to a new disc, it's both simplest & best to just use the appropriately sized blank disc. If your DVD drive can burn single layer DVDs, it can burn dual layer blank discs just as well. Use the free Imgburn.

That said, if you just copy the main video content, e.g. the movie, with only the audio & sub tracks that you need, many DVDs that would otherwise require a dual layer DVD will fit on a single layer blank. DVD Shrink, & older versions of Nero Recode, which are virtually identical, can copy just that content to a new folder on your HDD, and can also trim the end credits if or as needed, further reducing the total size.

The reason that you don't want to re-encode DVD video nowadays is that there's another type of DRM that even the very capable WinX DVD Copy Pro can't overcome -- the video quality on the original is purposely kept low, precisely because it'll look bad if you re-encode it. Not only do you get the normal quality loss from re-encoding, but you'll have to cut the bit rate to make the files smaller, and there's just not enough quality there to support that.

Louis: It isn't the case that today's software is unable to back up a commercial DVD to a standard blank DVD-R disc, rather that it can't fit the quart it is being given into the user's pint pot. Nothing and no-one ever could.

The price of Dual Layer blank DVDs has fallen considerably over the years. I have in times past used the superb freeware DVD Shrink to manage the editing and selective compression of source material so as to get everything onto the traditional single layer blank, but in view of present-day prices have switched to Verbatim's outstanding 8.5GB DVD+R DLs.

I use my old but immaculate (and unfailingly reliable) Sony DL DRX-820UL rewritable drive bought for me as a burfday present 10 years ago (!) I have never experienced a single toaster, nor has the Verbatim DVD+R format ever failed on any external player of mine (from Panasonic and Sony.)

MikeR, Thanks Mike, I'm a fan of Verbatim as well. I recall (but this was many years ago), that I once couldn't fit a commercial video onto a DL DVD - this may have been a very long movie perhaps, as I would imagine that they should normally fit inside 8.5 GB. If one is still able to get these DL discs, then that problem should be solved, I agree.

I just wanted to make sure regarding this software from Digiarty, as I do know they have software that also compresses onto standard 4.3 GB DVD, though I can't remember which one of their products does that, it may be the Ripper version.

MikeR, Thanks so much for your comments, but I have to disagree with "Nothing and no-one ever could.", unless I am misunderstanding what you are trying to convey.
Tipard has a dvd copy program that copies and shrinks. And that is the only reason I would use Tipard over today's wonderful program. Of course, they can't fit 9GB onto a 5GB disc, but they CAN compress the 9GB to 5GB.

Willie B, this can happen if there is some sort of conflict between programs. I've had similar happen to myself. Easiest way to resolve this is to uninstall VLC, do a quick cleanup and reinstall VLC. Should fix it for you, a bit of a pain but it's quicker and easier than removing WinX DVD and going through the whole install & reg process again. Hope that'll help you.

Robert,

Another option would be to use a "portable" edition of VLC, as I have done for years. In most cases, portable versions of a program (which also means they could be taken with you anywhere, and run from a thumbdrive) either do not involve the Win Registry, or do it minimally or with some external file that resides with the program itself. With the portable version, the OS is effectively unaware of the program's presence. This also allows you to host different versions of the same program, which can sometimes be useful -- for the sake of trying out and comparing them, or in cases like with AVIdemux, where they kept removing some features that I liked. I'm using this now with FireFox, due to very disadvantageous changes to their support for browser extensions I depend on. The portable apps thing sounds more techie than it is, in actual practice. You may just need to create a program object on the desktop, using "Create Shortcut", or the right click "Send To" for the main program executable. Do a search, or check out portableapps.com.

The key question re the WinX copier will be: How does it stack up against DVDFab or what became of the (now saddled with a problematic business model) AnyDVD ? If it did not do well against fairly recent *protected* discs, it would not be worth bothering with. Not being able to make dual-layer-size copies would also be a serious limitation. The ISO file option is a good one, though. Not all players will play these, but some do.

No, the only difference between the Giveaway and the Full Lifetime Licenses is that the giveaway license does not support free upgrades.
Incidentally, I tried the program on Windows XP sp3. It installed easily and looked good, but when I tried to copy two commercial DVDs on two different DVD drives to iso files the program each time immediately skipped to the end, saying the file had been created when it hadn't.
Apart from that, the main limitations of the otherwise potentially versatile program seemed to me to be that it couldn't shrink DVDs; most commercial DVDs are dual layer, but as DL blanks are expensive, it helps to be able to use ordinary DVDs for back up.
Furthermore, inconveniently there was no option for changing the destination of ISO files.

BAW30s,

"... but as DL blanks are expensive..."

Just went to Newegg's site, & regular pricing on single layer blanks is around $20 for 100 -- dual layer blanks are $25 for 50. Both types are of course cheaper on sale, and may be found cheaper if you shop around -- I just went to the one site.

I can't say what's expensive for anyone else, but for me, the time & effort needed to put just a movie, with no menus or features on single layer blank, isn't worth less than $1 savings.

Alan, see the instructions in Msg. #1 above. I downloaded directly form the company website and avoided GOTD. Everything worked fine, getting license code, etc. No reboot required (as someone else commented), on Win10 machine.

kc,

Thanks KC

Oddly enough, after downloading and installing direct from company website, it was already licenced. Must have picked up the licence from the previous GAOTD, from well over two years ago!

Donatello46, typically that means that your anti-virus is preventing it from installing. Temporarily disable the anti-virus and it should install correctly.

Donatello46,

The software uses the GAOTD wrapper. This often causes problems. The solution is a little painful:

Disable ALL antivirus software - ensuring that you go into the options and disable "on-demand" scanning, scanning at bootup, scanning at windows start, etc)

Try installing - if it still fails
Keep your AV disabled and reboot into Safe Mode with networking enabled

Try installing. It should work.

Steve, Many thanks, that worked fine, although I am usually reluctant to disable AV software, even temporarily!

Donatello46,

You made a very good point.

Your comment: "although I am usually reluctant to disable AV software, even temporarily!" is why antivirus software generally has a workaround, by allowing you to add an exception of a program you trust as opposed to turning it off to allow the program you want to "get through" and possibly anything else that can during that same time.

In many years of using GOTD, I have never once had to temporarily disable my antivirus to install any of the offers here.

You will have to look in the settings available in your antivirus software to see where you can add the exception. Some Antivirus programs have a learn-as-you-go operation in that it will prompt you if the program was about to be blocked, giving you the option to add the program to the list of exceptions, and if it is a one-time-exception or a permanent exception. That settings is generally not the default because it can be tiresome getting to the point where your common programs are all accepted.

Most Firewalls have a similar mode, usually with the word "learn" in the title or explanation of that feature. In spite of these settings being available, the default setting is generally to not prompt the user, but instead decide and block silently. If you look in the logs, you can often see what was blocked. Most users don' take the time to research, so they are left wondering why something did not install or activate.

Most programs attempt to contact their home base (call home) during the install. If they cannot successfully make the connection, the program may choose to alert the user, or it could be silently dropped. A common message that confuses users, "Cannot connect to the Internet" gives the user's response, "but I am connected to the Internet." In a way, both are correct. The user is connected to the Internet through their browser, however the user never seems to realize it is because the browser is using the most common method of communication, which is to send a simple request (url), and receive back a page of HTML. When a software program attempts to "call home" they generally use a different method programmatically, and hidden to users, which could be used to download malicious content. Effectively, browsers get the Gold treatment by Firewalls, but newly installed software does not.

I also agree with those users yelling back that they are connected, because the standard "Cannot connect to the Internet" is a very poor message from the developer. They should come up with a much better message, explaining that their software is probably being blocked by the user's Firewall, or their antivirus blocked the installation, and that if the user can connect to the Internet using their browser, then they should check to see if their Firewall or Antivirus blocked the program.

If you need an even better reason to not disable your antivirus, supposedly there is a bit of malware that monitors whether the antivirus is disabled, and if so, then it takes advantage of that time to download some additional files, then does nothing with those files in order to not arouse suspicion. At some point later, the software takes multiple bits of data it has downloaded, joins them together to form the malicious part, which it works into the boot process. There have been several variants of it, but so far, it has not been very successful because some parts of it gets discovered before it can be used. To me that means there is a possibility it could be perfected to become a more serious of a threat later on. I do not want to be in the position of realizing I helped it invade my system, where there was already a way to add exceptions and keep my antivirus doing its job.

Gary, many thanks for your comment, you are quite right, I hadn't investigated ALL of the options in my AV (Avast free edition), I have now and have located the "exceptions" option, so I'll bear that in mind for future installations.

In the end, I temporarily disabled a couple of aspects of Avast (unnecessarily as it turns out), installed WinX, re-enabled Avast and did a scan just to err on the safe side (as far as possible) - no problems found, thankfullly at least not so far, but any AV, Firewall or other security software is only as good as its first failure.

Thanks again.

Eddie, When you use the URL to "Get Code", a new licence will be obtained.
This will last longer than your current licence.

Eddie, I installed it over my old version and the program asked me for the license key. Which is easy to get by the way. Thanks, GOTD.

Eddie, Mine came asking for the activation code, so maybe yours just used the existing code on the system?

Eddie, same here... ;-)