Not only can you but the latest version of the program may automatically remove the version it was "upgraded" from.

At least that's what happend when I installed version 17. It automatically removed version 16.

There are those who purchase upgrade versions of PD to save money. Some claim that they receive a message to uninstall the previous versions but wisely choose not to do so like you have done. Others claim that installing the upgrade versions automatically removes the previous version. Keeping the previous version allows you to use the NewBlue packs in the old versions and sometimes in the newer version too.

Each version of PD installed has its own assets that is removed when uninstalled. The NewBlue pack will be one casualty. All your downloaded assets will be safe.

You could make a list of NewBlue, and custom templates that have you made in that particular version. Uninstall that particular version and see what is available in the latest PD version you have. Repeat until only the latest version is left.

Let us know the result. Report back to us as this will help many users who want to know what really happens.

Quote At one point, you had to have the older version to get the upgrade price, but has that changed?

I believe that is still true, however there is no "upgrade" pricing (or requirement for having an existing version) when buying a subscription.

Quote My question is . . . can I delete all of the old versions of the Cyberlink software and still retain all the add-on packs that are in the newest version? Also, is it a good idea to save my last Director Suite (v6) that I purchased in case I don't want to continue the subscription version?

You should keep everything as-is until you install PD/DS 365, then you can uninstall the previous versions. Remember to keep your personal settings if prompted, and do not manually remove any legacy content packs unless you're sure that you won't use them anymore.

You can (and probably should) keep your purchased version of DS installed so you will always have access to the projects created with your legacy PD versions, but it's important to note that ALL projects created or opened and saved in PD17/DS365 CAN NOT be opened with an earlier version of the editor. This is not a subscription/perpetual license issue, however.

Every time a new editor version is released, new features and fixes are added which change the internal structure of the PDS file. Because earlier editor versions would not correctly process the revised script, you'll get a message stating that the project was created with a newer version and cannot be opened.

It's that way with every new version, so please know that discontinuing the subscription (and not also purchasing the current stand-alone version) will leave you unable to work with those newly created projects. I haven't discovered yet exactly what happens when a subscription ends and someone chooses to not renew it, but the end of the Subscription License paragraph on the EULA mentions that the sofware may be "disabled."

I've sent that question over to Cyberlink Customer Service and will post back here when they reply.

UPDATE Here is the response, which pretty clearly states that the programs will no longer work at all once the subscription expires: "With reference to your query, please be advised that if the purchased Subscription software expires, you will no longer be able to access the software as it requires you to sign in your CyberLink Account with an active subscription."

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Cindy R, I'd be very leery of any recommendations to remove older products, depending on what features you use during editing obviously.

NewBlue causality was already mentioned, SmartSound, if you use it can be another casualty. I posted a table here https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/78051.page#319802 for NewBlue and PD releases that may be of value.

It can be rather cumbersome recovering some of these features, especially if you've always upgraded since PD11. It's sometimes hard identifying what exactly went missing during a uninstall until you realize latter you don't have it.

Jeff

See attached spreadsheet I created to keep track of components supplied with each version.
You CAN install previously supplied components with newer versions... I installed AudioDirector as it wasn't supplied with my newer PD17 Ultimate version.

PRodID col:
Assign a new/higher/same number to all components supplied with newer versions.
Then sort on this col from high to low so you always installed the newest version of each component.

Red Color:
Shows duplicates which means you already have this component supplied with a previous version.

Regards Nigel

Thanks so much for all the tips and spreadsheet/table! It was really helpful but still left me undecided as to what to do regarding previous versions. I need to clean out some stuff on my hard drive as it's starting to get filled up and thought this would be a way to do it.

I guess I didn't think about not being able to open older projects in newer versions. I was planning on keeping the latest Suite Products (v6) just in case I didn't want to continue with the subscription after a year and it becomes disabled. However, I am liking all of the add on packs that are included on a monthly basis so I will decide when my year is up.

Again, thanks for the responses.
Cindy R

Quote Thanks so much for all the tips and spreadsheet/table! It was really helpful but still left me undecided as to what to do regarding previous versions. I need to clean out some stuff on my hard drive as it's starting to get filled up and thought this would be a way to do it.

I guess I didn't think about not being able to open older projects in newer versions. I was planning on keeping the latest Suite Products (v6) just in case I didn't want to continue with the subscription after a year and it becomes disabled. However, I am liking all of the add on packs that are included on a monthly basis so I will decide when my year is up.

Again, thanks for the responses.
Cindy R

Cindy R,

I would recomend that you export your older Cyberlink Downloads to an external hard drive. USB external hard drives are a reasonable cost way of retaining all of your older software. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

A few weeks ago I upgraded to 365 (PD 17) and uninstalled (so I thought) PowerDirector 13, but all my old files still open with 13. Whenever I create a new file with 17 and then try to open it, again it tries to open it with 13 and tells me it can't because it was created in a later version.

I have now deleted every file downloaded from CyberLink before this year (perhaps 10-15 GB!) and I still can't get rid of 13. When I do a search on my windows 10 machine, I can't find 13, but every time I open a file, it comes up.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Quote I have now deleted every file downloaded from CyberLink before this year (perhaps 10-15 GB!) and I still can't get rid of 13. When I do a search on my windows 10 machine, I can't find 13, but every time I open a file, it comes up.

What am I doing wrong?

You aren't doing anything wrong, but deleting all Cyberlink files won't change what's installed on your system. Most likely, you've only deleted the installer(s) for PD13 and any content packs that came with it, so unless those are still in your recycle bin, you won't be able to easily reinstall them (if you ever wanted to, that is).

I just did a test on my Win10 system and found out that I have a similar situation! I have PD13, 14 and 17/365 installed, and this is a brand new system that I built from the ground up just 6 months ago. I started with an empty SSD then loaded Win10 and all my apps from scratch.

Today, however, when I opened the Apps & features screen to take a screenshot to show how to confirm if PD13 was still on your system, I found that PD14 is NOT listed on mine! This despite the fact that in the below image I have PD14 running and even Revo Uninstaller Pro doesn't show it as installed:



So something is going on with Win10 that has damaged its database of installed programs, but we don't have to worry about that right now if all you want to do is use PD17.

There is an easy workaround, and that's to change the default program that's associated with PDS files.

Currently, it's clearly set to PD13 on your system because that's the app that tried to open the project files when you double-clicked on them. You must have launched the PD17 from the desktop icon some of the time, as you were able to create new projects there that PD13 couldn't open when tried to edit them later on.

To change the default editor to PD17, click on Start then Apps, Default apps and click on the link to Choose default apps by file type. There will be hundreds of entries, so scroll about 60% of the way to the bottom until you get to .pds.

I imagine you will see the PD13 icon assigned to .pds files, so click on it and then select PD17 from the popup window. Do the same thing for .pdl and .pdm files:



That's all you need to do, and when you close that window, PD17 should launch whenever you double-click on .pds files from now on.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Thank you so much; this solved my problem!

Once again, this forum has proved itself to be the best of its kind on the internet. Your contributors have been clear and have solved every problem I have brought to you in record time. (This time it took less than two hours to get a reply.)

The forum alone is enough reason to keep using PowerDirector.

Peter Ray

You can use “outdated” versions of PD by installing it as 32bit and access additional codecs, including DivX. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT