Corel DRAW X3, X4 and X5 crashes on Open, Save As, Export. A.R.M. error.

June 22, 2009
By

The bigger they are, the harder they fall

Corel Draw is one of the most expensive pieces of junk I ever saw. I take that back :) Considering that still X3 was decent compared to 11 and 12 and also that X5 is pretty good considering Corel’s history and also most important because I’ve seen much more expensive piles of junk since I wrote this.

Nevertheless I, and probably you too have to use and maintain it. I had the following problem on a fresh installation of Windows XP SP3: every time I wanted to export, save as or open a drawing Corel Draw X3 would crash regularly with it’s darned Crash Wizard.I tried applying the patches found on the Corel support page but it didn’t help. After some digging I found that it’s a problem related to the Common Dialogue function found in comdlg32.

You must launch regedit (ALT+R or START->RUN and type regedit and press enter) and go to:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32]
and change NoFileMru from 0×00000001 to 0×00000000

Download nofilemru.reg
1
2
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4

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg32]
"NoFileMru"=dword:00000000

If on your computer it’s already 0 it’s worth trying the other way around, just remember to set it back if it doesn’t help.

UPDATE: I encountered the very same problem with Corel Draw X4 (even after applying the Corel Service Pack for X4) with the ugly difference that the cause of the crash is not reported. Fortunately repeated crashes on open, save, save as and export made me remember this article and sure enough this was the cause.

UPDATE: Users are reporting the same problem of crashing with Corel X5 and Windows XP.

Am I the only one thinking Corel is getting crapier and crapier by the version? Well not really, updating this article now, after some time I feel that x4 is really an improvement over the x3.

UPDATE: Some users reported the same problem on other Windows versions. Also X5 had the same issues.

If this article saved you a session of hair pulling you could buy me a beer or a coffe :)

 

 

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  • tavi

    Good Job! it works! Thanks!

  • fra

    hi all, i have the same problem with corel draw x5 on windows 7 32 bit.
    Problem is that i can’t create a new key in policies folder because corel is installed on a user’s laptop.
    If i create “comdlg32″ as administrator it works only for administrator…
    How can i create “comdlg32″ on user laptop???

    please help me!

  • http://www.minimalworx.net mwx

    Hi. Just dropping a line to say thanx!!! Had this problem with CorelDraw X5 on Win XP SP3 32bit. Your solution worked.

  • http://www.sindikat-ns.org.rs jyllson

    I had this problem also with CDR X5 and XP Pro SP3 32b, and this was very helpful. Thank you! :)

  • VYB

    It did work!!! I cant believe it was that simple :p
    I thought its happening because im virtually running win on my mac.
    thank god i did a search and didnt just give up. phew. Thanks :D

  • Vijender

    Wolla what a nice trick to create comdlg32 key

    You must launch regedit (ALT+R or START->RUN and type regedit and press enter) and go to:
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
    Click on “Policies” Click New and then Click “Key”
    Name the new key “comdlg32″ when created, right click on comdlg32, click on New and then click “string value”. On the Right panel of registry Name the new string value “NoFileMru” and set the value 0×00000000 press enter, from view mennu do refresh. DONE..

    restart your computer & ARM error will become history.

  • Khooty

    Nope – I tried this and came to a halt after ‘policies’ – the remainder ‘/’ weren’t there. I have windows 7 on a 64 bit system running Corel Draw 10. I am doing a small catalogue job with 28 pages and some largish photos – file size is 595 MB. The blasted thing crashes after running only a few minutes & though it sends a report just keeps on crashing soon after I reopen it.
    Any ideas?

  • http://www.sgvulcan.com/ silviu

    Like I said a few times above: This is a fix speciffically for one problem that being if it crashes *every time* you try to save, save-as or open a file. It won’t help with anything else. Though as a quick hunch Corel 10 sounds pretty old for Windows 7 64 to play nice with.

  • stoorm

    Thank you very much! I have this problem on Corel Draw X5 (Win XP+SP3) and now is working good!

    Again thanks a lot!

  • frank

    well, i have the same problem (crashes every time i try to open a cdr file. Win 7 64-bit here. The .dll file thing did not change the problem.

  • frank

    also run a corel X5. I cannot uninstall it as well…

  • nicolas

    Thank you very much!you just save my life

  • http://www.sgvulcan.com/ silviu

    This fix is working only if you crash when the open, save or save-as dialog is used! Easy to check. Double click on a .cdr file in explorer. If it still crashes like this than your problem is unrelated. If you go corel draw, new file and then it crashes when you hit save as instead of presenting the save dialog than you have the problem described above. Good luck.

  • tybuzz67

    hey thanks..you solution does works. now i wonder why this happened? i installed X4 and i found out the error i switch to X5 hoping it would work. same problem. man, this sucks. coreldraw seems cool with this darn bug.

  • tybuzz67

    hey thanks..you solution does works. now i wonder why this happened? i installed X4 and i found out the error i switch to X5 hoping it would work. same problem. man, this sucks. coreldraw seems cool without this darn bug.

  • jackson5

    Anybody can help? I have X5 with SP1 and SP 2 installed on Win 7-64 bit platform. Corel crashes immediatelly and with no error message at any attempt to export any kind of format (i.e. png, gif, jpg….) I am yet a bit frustrated… so thank’s for any suggestion….

  • Toni a

    Thank you so much man!. it works on x4, i’ll try on X5 too, because yesterday all of them are fail.
    You’re great! :)

  • andre

    Help! Corel crashes! Idid everything you writed but nothing helps it is still crashes. It dont let to save export and other :( ((( I creant new key but it didnt help???? what the metter. and On the Right panel of registry there is and default key??? maybe I have to delete it? please help

  • Sanshiru

    Hello,

    so far I’ve worked with corel photopaint x4 without any issues for more than half a year, yesterday out of the blue it started crashing whenever I tried saving a file in it’s very own file format. I reinstalled it, reinstalled a newer version, namely x5 and even reinstalled windows twice but still the same issue. there has been no sort of update or whatsoever before it started crashing. I was working with it for several hours that day and just when i finished the last texture it crashed the first time and ever since it doesn’t stop. starting it and working with it is no issue at all tho.

    I’m running win 7 32 sp1 3gb ram

    i checked the registry as you mentioned in you article but there is no such entry. also creating it with the mentioned value did not help the problem.

    thanks in advance for solutions.

  • Ned Baldy

    Thanks a lot this worked great for me using X4 on XP. :D

  • seth_hme

    Why i can’t save or Export file CorelDraw X4 use Window 7?

  • http://www.sgvulcan.com/ silviu

    If you have the same problem I describe the answer is clearly described above.

  • Sanshiru

    if you’d have bothered reading my post, then you’d have noticed that i tried what you said in your article, but apparently it didn’t work.
    so never mind i just stick to corel 12.
    can’t stand people who are incapable of reading and comprehending the read.

  • Thomas

    many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many thanks. Makes this day a good day once more.

    Thomas

  • LastArc her

    Thanks woody its worked

  • Sasa

    Thanks for help, you save few hours of reinstalling to me

  • Joel Fernandes

    Dude! I would kiss you if I could. It worked on a fresh Windows XP (32bits under a VM) and Corel X5.

    Thank you!

  • Lucas

    Thank you! It works perfectly!

  • Joe

    My two cents…

    While the author is to be commended for posting a solution, in the bigger picture, it’s bugs like this that make me feel as if Corel is neglecting it’s flagship software. I’ve been using Corel since version 3, and it seems as though things started going south with version 11. Prior to version 11, I was a happy and productive Corel user. But since then, I’ve been using Adobe more and more. Corel has simply become too buggy and unstable. I wish Corel would stop buying up software companies and start re-focusing on what made them famous in the first place.

  • Theo

    Hello, I looked in this problem where Corel PP crashes all the time on my computer (XP SP3). When I have an image like 1000x1500px; I make the width 300 px; I make a new document 72DPI 300×430. I copy the first picture into the new document; Export it to a folder; When closing the file, PP crashes/I get the recovery thing. So I looked with REGEDIT for the line to change, but I’ve got NO line saying “comdlg32″. Does this mean my problem is even bigger since I guess it should be there in the first place? Should I manually make a key? Or is the “comdlg32″ not connected/in use regarding to Corel at all?

  • aldrin mantaring

    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS THANKYOU!!!!!!!! i’ve been looking for this fix for 3 days!!! been messing with x3 x4 and x5 thanks to this!!!!!

  • Theo

    UPDATE: I missed the reply above explaining how to add the key with regedit. I made the key and restarted the PC again. But it didn’t help me. I also read the reply where it explains how to see if the problem is related to your topic. When I open CorelDraw and make a new document and save as a .cdr file it doesn’t crash. So unfortunately it seems I have an other problem. I don’t know what to do any more. I repaired X5, uninstalled it, installed it. Before SP2 I did not have this problem. I was not 100% stable but less worse than this…

  • Syam Supriadi

    it works, thank you very much

  • Shutterbabe

    I tried this, doesn’t work for me. Check everything nothing’s working after updating the SP2.

  • Murali

    Wow its worked ………… thanx……………

  • Theo

    Hello, what if you don’t have this key at all?

  • http://www.sgvulcan.com/ silviu

    Than you simply need to create it!

  • don

    i cannot save, save as, export nor print from corel X4.. whats must be the problem??? can any of you out there help me here??

  • http://www.ver-go.com Florian

    Works like a charm! Thanks so much ;)

  • Gaurav

    Hey man… it really helped a lot… u do deserve a coffee from me…

  • ivan

    THANK YOU SOoooooooo much!

  • Topas

    Yummmeeee…thanks. Its works.

  • denismk

    thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank youthank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank youthank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank youthank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

  • Rizzolution

    windows error ,, cant open coral x5…   close program

  • http://www.sgvulcan.com icebox

    This sounds like a different problem

  • Mauk3us

    thank you a million times

  • lia

    im having the same problem…when i save or save as it crashes…i tried to do as u instructed but there is nothing in the “policies” folder :| ……HELP……..PLZ…

  • Basia Dzida

    Man, you are GREAT!!! Thank you :)

  • Jumma786

    u r awesome man its work for me

  • Salamancaoswaldo

    i am sick of this version corel x5 , is the most terrible version since corel 8(COREL BIDI)

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