Do they really expect to sell upgrades with the "license manager" that only benefits Equis?

I have a backup laptop, in case of problems (this is MY money on the line, using THEIR product), and the initial "CD Check" was annoying enough, as it was unexpected. Understandable, but annoying.

After a virus/worm/whatever sneaked in last November, I had to pull the plug, backup in safe mode, and wipe the disk. A license manager sounds like a recipe for serious customer annoyance. On top of all the other recovery problems (like time cost) involved in getting a new or recovering system back up & running, this would cause undue delay.

Plus, there's nothing about improved memory management, fixing the failure-prone "Favorites" system (or even a "clean up" utility for it) , a fix for the "Equidistant Channels" that move around between saves, a "crippled" the System Tester in the EOD version (you can't OPT for stops) and still nothing with which to clean up the data and add new issues to the appropriate folder.

A doubtful upgrade...no serious work, just cosmetic improvements which should have been in a maintenance release.

hey johnathan and jim.... the license manger could be for our beneifit as much as equis's.... it caught me off guard but nothing is lost.... i still have all prior cd's and the programs are still on my machines.....

to open any of the prior metas require's reinserting that cd..... something that i've yet to do..... but just shootin from the hip i'd say my days of multiple metas on one machine are gone........ thats okay, after seein 10 its doubtful i'd ever move back to 9, 9.1, or 9.2, unless esignals version 10 does not become available.....

it cost less than 200 bucks to upgrade, which is far far less than my average trade loss..... i've only had metastock for about 2 years now and it had always appeared a work in progress, like all progressive programs...... it appears 200 well spent.....

and thanks to rett in sales and keli last night on tech support..... h

Copy protection has no benefit to the customer. If/when a better product comes along, it doesn't do much in the way of goodwill for the vendor, either -- look at what happened to Lotus 1-2-3, and how quickly it happened. Nobody likes anyone else to assume they are a thief.

I looked at a LOT of packages before deciding on Metastock; unfortunately, I didn't save my comparison work, so now I'll have do it all again. No hurry, but it'll have to be done, as seeing Equis focus effort on copy-protection, rather than product repair & improvement, is a very, very bad sign.

You will NEVER be able to return to a previous version, once you have saved any chart or template, as they are version-specific. Probably all indicators, explorations & system tests. If you don't have a backup, and have saved anything, you are stuck with the new version.

hey jim.... i do have a undisclosed "goal" involving metastock but selling anything is not part of it..... i'll help where i can , no strings, presumtions or bills attached.....

i switch back and forth between versions for several reasons..... the primary reason is 9.1 and 9.2 are for quotecenter and version 9 is for esignal........

your second paragraph was my thinking also.... jack daniels bottom line improved when the moonshiners were put out of business.... which probably allowed jack to improve that 90 proof.....

the license manager, for me, now appears as a non-event, so i have yet to look at it any closer..... it just caught me off guard , thats all..... however, i would have installed 10 on a different comupter had i known of it.... but no biggie either way....

we can still use our other versions, just possibly not on the same computer..... but the very positive changes in 10 will almost assure that i will not......

and btw equis upper management, w[censored]ver rewrote those help files deserves a big christmas bonus.... job well done..... a big improvement......h

I keep the older versions mainly for development work. I don't do a lot of real time trading so the esignal vs quotecenter thing doesn't really convern me. I don't ever use a different version of MS just to target a particular function, although I very rarely use versions earlier then 7 with no Security() and ExtFml() functions.

I am VERY CONCERNED that I will not be able to do an installation as I would like with MS10

I have a small network at home. I have my main machine (the desktop) which runs as a server (sometimes, damn you W. Gates!) I have multiple versions of MS loaded on the desktop and the two laptops which have ethernet/wireless connection, depending on where I am in the house and what she-who-must-be-obeyed is doing. Each computer has its own qualities, so I have a choice when it comes time to work. I am the only user of MS and can only use one version at one time.

(A recommendation for MS11:
Don't badge the data files, templates, layouts, indicators, experts etc with their MS version. Allow the user to have complete set of indicators etc stored in central location, accessible by all versions of MS. The same goes for badging the data; one data file stored on my network should be accessible to all versions of MS.)

If the new version of MS10 is going to prevent me from having multiple versions of MS on my computer/network then I will have to seriously consider how I am going to implement the installation.

As a customer, I would prefer it if companies who have no idea what my particular situation is, don't try to dictate terms to me. That goes for Micro$oft (operating systems), Micro$oft (office applications), Micro$oft (development applications, programming IDEs) and Micro$oft (tools, patches, addins, Genuine Notification Advantage etc), Trend, MathWorks, Mozilla and Equis. Companies that care little for their customers, will quickly find that soon they will have no customers to worry about.

Rules of Business:
1. The customer is always right.
2. If the cutomer is wrong, see Rule 1.
3. Even if the customer is a pain in the ass, see Rule 1.
4. The customer is always right.



wabbit [:D]

just tossing out some ideas here ....

we could partition the hard drive .....

it appears the version 10 user agreement does not allow for the legal desktop and laptop install as before.... 1 and only 1 at a time.... or at least i haven't found the permissive launguage.....

perhaps we could install the v10 on a portable external hard drive..... thats not a bad idea overall....

your 15 digit license number is in a text doc in the metastock folder.... the text doc name is license.... hang on to it....

this is one time we should read the user agreement in full...... read number 5 twice.....

i'll run some tests to see if the stdata file still has issues.....

btw, ot, for those not having ms excel, google now has a free spreadsheet web based program very similar to excel..... those are saveable on googles servers.... you might need a gmail account , not sure...... it will come in handy sorting those 12 explorer columns.....h

Just to provide a couple clarifying points:

-Templates are not version specific

-You can install MetaStock 10 on 2 PC's per the license agreement

-You can have version 10 and still maintain older versions. If you are trying to maintain multiple versions you will need to export the previous version's Equis registry key (HKey_Current_User>Software), remove this key, then install version 10 (Making sure to specify a different folder than the existing versions) and Export it's registry key to a separate registry file. You can then swap registry files whenever you want to switch back to a previous version.

-You cannot have 2 different versions of 10 on the same PC (i.e. 10 EoD and 10 Pro) because the License Manager will overlap between the 2 versions and not work properly.

I have just about every EOD & Pro version of MetaStock from v6.5 to 9.1 on CD, but only use MS Pro v8.01 as this is the most forward/backward compatible version for my small group of 250 clients. Any custom code I put together in v8.01 installs perfectly in all my clients' MS versions (v8.0~v9.2) so far. Has any MS v10 user found any problems importing their previous version's indicators/explorations/experts/templates? jose '-)

For the majority of users, I wonder what real benefit there is for migrating from version 7 or 8. The value add after these versions appear to be quite mickey mouse.

It can be frustrating, especially when comparing to competing products, such as Amibroker, and even Bullcharts, which add user requested features very quickly, and not to include these as a version x.0 upgrade.

I am so glad we have Roy, Jose, Wabbit, the original forum creators, and dll creators (such as TMW) who try to address what users want.

I wonder if the Equis marketing team have even done a product comparison lately or the last 2 years for that matter ?

Thank goodness for the positives, H. No apologies necessary! You're the best! [:)]