I tried asking in Daz forums, and have been going round in circles with Daz3D's tech support with this one.

I previously had an education version of Carrara 7 pro installed by a private instructor on my PC. I purchased my own version of Carrara 7 Pro so I could have access to updates and render nodes, and all the good features, and use the software commercially.  I removed the version on my PC, removed all temp files, folders, and dug through the registry deleting every Carrara reference I could find, yet when I re-installed from my purchase, it did not ask for my name or serial number, and instead is still showing the registration information from the previously installed version.  After talking with Daz3D at length, they have told me this is intentional, and that there are hidden keys, but have offered no help to correct this.  This is preventing me from accessing key features, such as the Render Nodes (which I installed on my other PCs using my liscense).

I am wondering if any Carrara guru's out there know where, or what hidden registry keys this information is stored in to delete, so I can enter my serial, and thus be properly elligible for updates and use my render nodes?

I have tried a registry search using the instructor's name as displayed in Carrara, and the parts of the serial that are readable, but nothing shows - which leads me to believe it is encrypted.

Daz has only been willing to offer a refund in store credit of less than 50% of what I paid, which I find unacceptable.  Especially since I don't want a refund, I want to get the software running properly. I guess they're hoping I'll use it to buy Carrara 8, but given this debacle that is very unlikely (I do not like software that permanently embeds and hides data on the host computer - regardless of reasoning).

Any help is appreciated, and thank you for your time.

Have you tried creating a different user identity on the computer and installing under that ID?

No, but it will not work since the information is embedded in the registry under the administrator account, any user profile created will use that name and serial. I need a way to reset this info under the primary administrator account.

it can be realy "simple" if you realy want Carrara to work ..

Reinstall Windows.. then all prior reg files are gone for sure..

But is this a school PC or office or at home..
Its strange that the "teacher" used a admin. acount on your computer ..
If hey has acces to your admin rights then for sure you have that right too..

There are ways to remove embedded reg. files but if you have a original learning version on your computer
Daz will see that by its serial number and a instlling of a full version wont be a problem for sure.
IF and i say IF a not so Student version is used by the private teacher they also can see that by the serial or lack of serial that is used..

So reformating the PC might be the only way to get the "bad"reg files of for sure..

So talk to the Instrucktor what type of Carrara he installed..
I know DAZ is one of the most laid back companys in the money back dept.
So if they have a reason not to fully payback they must have a damn good reason..

BCl

The admin account is the only account on this PC. Generally I am the only one to use it.

The teacher was a private instructor I hired last summer, giving in-home instruction here (I was out of 3D for almost 10 years), and he hasn't been real forth coming now when I try to contact him. At the time it was installed, he told me it was an educational Version.  I already had Various other 3D apps of my own (Poser, Lightwave, etc...), so the only thing installed for the class was Carrara. He brought the software to install, but I installed it.  Had I known this issue would come back to haunt me, I definately would have taken precautions at that time (this is the first software I have run into that embeds registration data permanently, I'm sure it's not the only).

Reformatting and reinstalling windows is really not a viable option. I have too much installed on this machine, and reinstalling and setting it all up again would take days.

Its def. not the only one 8/10 programs do it..

You say on THIS machine.. if you have a other one install it on that one for time being...
This is just what you say .. it does come back and bite you ..

BC

Quote - Its def. not the only one 8/10 programs do it..

You say on THIS machine.. if you have a other one install it on that one for time being...
This is just what you say .. it does come back and bite you ..

BC

Actually, over the years I have installed and removed hundreds of programs, on various computers, this is the first time where serial and owner information has been permanently embeded and hidden in my registry.  So 8/10 does not sound at all believable from my own practical experience with software installs and removals.  Usually, after uninstalling a program, cleaning up any temp files, directories, and ini files left by the program fixes any such problem.  In this case the keys are encrypted and hidden though, which is unusual.

As for the other machines, they are simply render nodes with small HDs.  They are not physically set up in a work friendly way.

 Computers become restive and facetious....

There is nothing in your registry that you can't find....if you look long enuff and hard enuff...and use common sense.

voice of experience

Quote - There is nothing in your registry that you can't find....if you look long enuff and hard enuff...and use common sense.

voice of experience

Incorrect. As I have already stated, after much discussion with Daz3D I was informed the information is intentionally encrypted and burried in the registry where "people are unlikely to find it". These were their words.  If you are implying you have knowledge to the contrary on where this is stored, then by all means please share it?

"unlikely" is the key word here...not impossible.
you need to figure out what you are looking for...sorry, can't help you there. 

Have you thought about using an external drive with an operating system installed on it?

Attached Link: http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

Then after the registry cleanup, try reinstalling Carrara after that process.

No guarantees, but shouldn't hurt too much to try it.

Have you tried installing by doing the: right click> run as administrator on the installer?
I had to do this for one version of Carrara until a bug was fixed. If it installs, you are forever required to open by right clicking and running as administrator. But it worked for me.

Registry cleaners are useless, as I already said in my initial post I have already used them and because these keys are hidden and encrypted the registry cleaners are not finding them.

As I already said in several previous posts, it is not a rights issue, as there is ONLY and administrator account.

Quote - you need to figure out what you are looking for...sorry, can't help you there.

Yeah and this is the information I am asking for, and asked for in post one.  Without knowing what the hidden keys are or where to look, they are not removable. Stating that "if you use common sense" is a complete misdirection, as these are hidden keys.  For all I know the information may be broken across multiple hidden keys, depending on how they chose to do it.

What I was hoping for is someone TRULYknowlegable in Carrara and Windows Registry who may have encountered this information, or know about this who would share information. I even used security software to track changes made on a seperate machine in hopes of locating these keys, and tracking down each of those registry entries and deleting it STILL does not remove this - which means that when the registry keys are written the installer most likely hooks processes to hide from detection.

Did you ever say why Daz won't tell you how to remove it?
What is the difference in an educational version and a regular version?
I bought C7 express  and later got a copy of C6 pro and have both installed and working..plus a beta version with a serial number.
Its all registered to me so no problem there...is your educational version not a full version?

For one thing, I can not use the render nodes due to a serial conflict. The other issue, is that while an Educational version of the program normally has all the features or is missing very few, it is not liscensed for commercial usage - as I intend to use it - hence I purchased a liscense to the full commercial Carrara 7 Pro.

As I already said, Daz intentionally hid and encrypted the info in the registry, I had to practically drag that out of them. They wont say why they wont tell me how to reset it, they just wont. It really irritates me. The other issue with the refund is because I orriginally made the purchase in February, discovered the problem in April, and have been trying to get help waiting for replies in Daz forums and the bug tracker since - it is now may, well past 30 days, and Carrara 8 is out for the same price I paid for 7 - which is probably why they don't want to give a refund. I would rather have Carrara fully working than a refund, but they don't seem to want to help me fix the issue either.

As for C7 Express, C6, and Beta versions, they are all different versions, so the information does not conflict across the versions - but in the issue I am having it is C7 to C7.

Go look at this thread: http://tinyurl.com/28ov49q

at the bottom of that page you will see someone did an install of carrara on an clean install of XP and recorded all the changes made to the registry might give you a clue on the cleanup.

A zip file is included which has text showing all the changes.

Quote - Go look at this thread: http://tinyurl.com/28ov49q

at the bottom of that page you will see someone did an install of carrara on an clean install of XP and recorded all the changes made to the registry might give you a clue on the cleanup.

A zip file is included which has text showing all the changes.

I tried something similar using one of my other machines, but the registry entries that showed up were not the ones.  I'll give it a look though, they might have used a better program for capturing the changes.

While on the subject of uninstalling, I recommend using a program like

Revo Uninstaller, there is a free edition.
http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

So first you launch Revo Uinstaller, and it looks like the Control Panel / Add Remove Programs windows.   You select the program to uninstall, and it then launches the program uninstaller program and sits back and watches which Registry locations and File/Folder locations were being look at on your hard drive.  Once the software uninstaller is done, Revo comes back and shows you all the leftover registry entry's and files/folders on  your hard drive and gives you the option to remove it.

I understand that Daz wants to protect its software, but if you uninstall the product, it should remove everything and not leave secret encrypted entry's in your machine, its a dirty practice in my opinion and almost like Spyware or RootKit.  At the very least, they should provide a Daz3D Product cleaner similar to what Symantec and other software company's provide.

Now in this scenario since its the software was already un-installed.  I would recommend you download and install: 

The Glary Utilities
http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html?tag=download

Its an excellent and free windows optimizer and has a more robust registry cleaner than CCleaner.

Attached Link: http://www.reviewingit.com/index.php/content/view/28/2/

Also some software sets mode flags in other external files other than the registry. You'd think an installer or uninstaller would snag those, but it's not always the case.

Formatting the O/S to get rid of software is very extreme and disappointing.

Even though that Daz forum post, which is for a similar yet unrelated bug, used regshot just as I did, I saw several registry keys in excess of 255 characters, using illegal symbols as well.  Right now those are my suspects - gonna try to figure out how to get rid of them and see if that does the trick, but somehow my hopes are not high.  Flagging external files is another possibility, I see several registry links in that log that show modifications to other files, not even certain I can undo that if that is the case.

I agree Analog-x64, this is exactly the type of behaviour a rootkit or virus exibits, and is unacceptable in my book as a "security" feature.  If they are that determined, they should maybe use a dongle, or make an uninstaller/cleaner as you said.  I could see this actuall making the software less secure.  For example, a computer user who is capable but not security minded goes to sell or trade his machine and believes simply uninstalling and deleting programs and files is safe and secure (I use this as I saw it all the time at the repair shop I worked at).  He leaves the OS on it and sells it, gives it away, what have you - but oops, embedded in the registry is his name and serial he paid for.  Someone using the computer decides to try Carrara, and installs it, and wham - they have a serial for a full version of Carrara pro with the ability to updates.  This may even cause conflicts with the actual owner, as if they embed this kind of data in the registry I would not doubt their online updater tracks machine and hardware IDs (kinda like microsoft does).

Problem here, is while I am definately more of a Power User, I am no programmer, so many of the registry keys are just gibberish to me.  Some I know from experience, others I can make educated guesses.  I really don't want to use a "registry Vacuum" to remove everything it identifies as an invalid key, as in the past false possitives had caused problems with other software, CoDecs, and liscenses, so I really need to use something with a little more precision.

Formatting and re-installing is out of the question.  With all of the software, files, and custom settings, it would result in far too much downtime.

Come to think of it, the last legitimate program I had this much trouble uninstalling was Roxio, lol - and for a time there was a cleaner for it to address that.

Daz3D and myself have reached an agreeable settlement to thisd issue. I consider the matter closed.