Last Updated: 1/27/2010

Symptoms

If you install Metafile Companion on the 64-bit version of Windows (XP, Vista or 7) and enter your registration information, the program continues to ask for your registrion information each time you start Metafile Companion.

Cause

Metafile Companion (like all well-behaved Windows programs) saves its program settings in the Windows Registry. The 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows contain a Registry Redirector that for 32-bit Windows programs (like Metafile Companion) "secretly" converts registry paths such as:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Company\Product

to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Company\Product

It appears that this Registry Redirector does not work uniformly when making this change.

Solution

This problem is solved in Metafile Companion v1.3.0 or later. Please download the latest version of the program to avoid this problem.

Work-around(s)

If you don't wish to download the latest version of the program, the work-around is to manually add your registration information to Wow6432Node of the Windows Registry.

The simplest way to do this is to:

1. Start the Windows Notepad program.
2. Enter the text below (substituting your own registration information for the italicized text):
   
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Companion Software\Metafile Companion]
   "SerialNumber"="CS-MC32-US-120-ABCDEFGH"
   "RegisteredOwner"="Your Name"
   "RegisteredOrganization"="YourName@Domain.com"
    
3. Save this file as RegisterMetafileCompanion.reg. Be sure to remember where you save it!
    
4. Locate this file in Windows Explorer and double-click it to "run" it. This will enter your registration information into the registry.

Thanks to Peter H. Roberts of PHRConsulting, Inc. for his help in tracking down this problem and testing the work-around!