I have noticed that this problem crops up when I try to open a FLAC file from FIle Explorer using the "Open with..." option. Anyone else have a similar experience?

Seems, that SF11 and CD-Architect don't like FLAC files with tags, which are no FLAC tags. Try to look for example in mp3tag if there are non FLAC tags. Or reencode them with ffmpeg, which ignores non FLAC tags. Both solves exactly this issue.

Thanks Nick. The link you used appears to be dead, but the registry fix worked. Wish i'd seen that long ago.

I have had this issue with SF-11 for over a year. In addition to the "Elevated Privileges" issue, at times some of the plug-ins, like Wave Hammer or Noise Reduction, revert to Demo Mode and litter the file I'm working on with random beep tones. Using the registry fix above fixes the problem but the deleted folder keeps re-appearing sporadically, requiring the registry edit to get the program to work. This happens several times a month. I wish there would be a permanent fix for this problem.

A couple of notes on the  [user SID]_Classes part of the registry key string:
[user_SID] represents your own security ID (SID). If you only have one user account on your machine there will only be one of these keys in the registry, so it is easy. Just pick that one.
If you have more than one user account then you need to pick your own for this fix to be effective.
One way to find it is to go to a command prompt (Windows-R cmd) and use the whoami command:

C:\Users\yourusername> whoami /user
USER INFORMATION
----------------

User Name SID
========= =============================================
yourcomputername\yourusername        S-1-5-21-184784223-2718281828-3141592653-1001

C:\Users\yourusername> 

The three ten-digit numbers in the SID are unique to each machine, but common to all accounts on the same machine (the "machine ID"). (Or, if you're in a domain, they're common to the domain, and instead of "yourcomputername" you'll see your domain name.)

The four-digit number at the end will be "1000" for the local Administrator account if you enable it, "1001" for the first user account created on the machine, etc. )

Given the above SID, the registry key I want would be

HKEY_USERS \ S-1-5-21-184784223-2718281828-3141592653-1001_Classes > VirtualStore > MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Wow6432Node > Sony Creative Software > Sound Forge [Pro or Audio Studio] > [Version Number]

One other point: If it makes you nervous to delete the registry key you can just rename it to something else. I rename mine from "11.0" to "11.0_delete_the_other_one_to_fix_reg_problem". SF never looks for that key so as far as SF is concerned the key is not there; it works just as well as deleting. But a) if for some reason you want to put it back, you can, just name it back; and b) next time the problem happens, if you've forgotten this fix, a registry search on "Sound Forge" plus a bit of checking will remind you what to do. :)

N.b.: I've obfuscated my SID above but there's nothing you could do with my SID even if you had it. You can't just tell Windows "use this SID"; you have to authenticate to the account associated with the ID to be in that user's security context.

Hi,
I've been using the method to delete the registry entry for (Sony) Sound Forge 11 for quite some time now, every time it's needed (which is probably once every 3-4 weeks or so).

But all of a sudden I'm not allowed to delete the registry entry anymore. I get an error message saying "Error when deleting key". I'm on Win 10 (64 bit) and the only change I can think of since I last performed this operation is that I've gotten the Creators Update to Win 10. Is anyone else experiencing this issue, or does anyone have any ideas on how to solve it? Thanks a lot in advance!

No problem with Creators Update here.

Is the program still open when you try editing the Registry?

Admin account, not user account?

Have you tried rebooting and editing the Registry?

Hi,
I only have 1 account, which has full admin access. I've always used that account for this purpose without any problems. But I also tried starting Regedit as Admin, but that didn't change anything.

Sound Forge won't start, I get the Registration prompt and close that before proceeding to Regedit. I've tried rebooting and then going straight to Regedit and also rebooting into safe mode. I also tried command line delete but I got a syntax error there, both using "reg delete HKU\S-1.....\Sound Forge Pro /v 11.0" and "reg delete HKU\S-1.....\Sound Forge Pro\11.0". Any idea on how to formulate that delete command correctly? (The ..... just means that I removed the actual path in this post). I also tried renaming the key, as Jamie says he does but I got the same kind of error message then too ("Error renaming...").

This is very strange (and very frustrating!). Any further ideas?

Delete and reinstall Sound Forge?

Thanks but I've had to do that so many times over the years to try to get rid of this problem (after having paid hundreds of $ for the software) so I'm not willing to start that trial and error phaze all over again since I know that even if it would solve the problem temporarily, which is far from certain, the problem is likely to come back within a few weeks again.

I was so fed up with Sony, who spent years without coming up with any working fix or solution so I was VERY happy when the registry tweak was confirmed to be working, although it did not fix the root cause. And now that fix is not working (for me) anymore so I'm back to square one.

Of course, none of us should need to bother with this at all, the software should have a stable registration/validation mechanism. This has been a known issue for years. I'm going to open a ticket in the Magix support and ask the initial question in this thread, i.e. have Magix fixed the root cause of this, or will they? Right now I (again) have an expensive software (I've bought it as a private user) that I can't use due to a faulty registration/validation mechanism.

Sorry for venting a bit, I'm just so sick of this (I previously spent many useless hours with the Sony support trying to get this solved, before the registry tweak was announced as a solution).

Maybe this might help:

https://www.howtogeek.com/262464/how-to-gain-full-permissions-to-edit-protected-registry-keys/

I get the feeling we have reached the end of the road for Sound Forge Pro. Still love it, will continue to use it for as long as I can

That didn't help either unfortunately (but thanks, much appreciated!). I'll keep searching for solutions another day, I'm too frustrated right now.

And agreed, when it doesn't have this issue I love SF too, it's my favorite audio editor. But I guess I need to find me a new favorite. I did ask Sony for my money back when they couldn't/wouldn't solve this issue, but they refused.

Hi

. . . .the only change I can think of since I last performed this operation is that I've gotten the Creators Update to Win 10 . . .

That would suggest that the update has affected your account permissions in the same way that the Anniversary update change account permissions for some users, me included.

Check the Windows update has installed correctly by right clicking the Windows Start button and select Command prompt(Admin) in the command dialog type sfc /scannow and press the enter key.

If you get any error message about fles cannot be repaired or are damaged, restart the computer - not a shutdown and power up - you want Windows to reload all drivers etc, and run the sfc scan again.

Repeat once more if you again get error message

If after the third run you still get an error message make a note of the files that are damaged or cannot be repaired.

Uninstall Sound Forge and clean out any installation files left behind, they may be in several locations eg Program Files (x86), Program Data, the All user and Public folders, and your own account Appdata folder, then re-install.

HTH

John EB

Thanks John. I ran the scan and there were no issues reported. As I said before I'm not too keen on uninstalling/reinstalling SF again, after having had to do that way too many times already due to the flawed registration/authorization used. But I guess I may end up doing that anyway, just to see if it works and find out if this was likely caused by the Windows upgrade or not. After all, I'm a huge fan of SF when it's working :)

This just gets better and better. When trying to uninstall I get the message that it can't be done since "a dll is missing". I've seen other people posting about this uninstall problem but I've seen no solution. Does anyone know how to solve this?

I tried the Revo uninstaller but that didn't work either, same error.

It's such a shame that a flawed registration/authorization mechanism renders such a great (and expensive) software unusable, and that the vendor (Sony, now Magix) lets years pass without fixing the root cause.

@thomas-h

Hi. Does this article from Microsoft help in removing the program? https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17588/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, that did play a part in solving this! Before trying that I actually managed to finally delete the registry entry. Upon closer examination of the permissions on each sublevel and subentry in the part of the registry that needs to be deleted it turned out that a sub-branch had no owner (possibly a consequence of the Windows upgrade, as John guessed) but once I put myself (my user account) as owner of that branch I could delete what should be deleted.

However, that did not solve the problem this time. The registration prompt remained. So I used the tool you linked to to uninstall SF, did the needed additional manual clean-up and then reinstalled SF. And once reinstalled SF started just fine. So now I am up and running again :)

Thanks to everyone who chipped in! Let's see how long before I get the registration prompt again (a few weeks I assume) and more importantly, let's see what happens when I try the registry operation as fix again. I'll keep you posted... I'll also let you know what Magix says regarding solving the root cause.

@thomas-h

Thanks for the feedback and update. Glad to hear everything is now running properly, for the time being at least!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, that did play a part in solving this! Before trying that I actually managed to finally delete the registry entry. Upon closer examination of the permissions on each sublevel and subentry in the part of the registry that needs to be deleted it turned out that a sub-branch had no owner (possibly a consequence of the Windows upgrade, as John guessed) but once I put myself (my user account) as owner of that branch I could delete what should be deleted.

However, that did not solve the problem this time. The registration prompt remained. So I used the tool you linked to to uninstall SF, did the needed additional manual clean-up and then reinstalled SF. And once reinstalled SF started just fine. So now I am up and running again :)

Thanks to everyone who chipped in! Let's see how long before I get the registration prompt again (a few weeks I assume) and more importantly, let's see what happens when I try the registry operation as fix again. I'll keep you posted... I'll also let you know what Magix says regarding solving the root cause.

The Registration problem has to do with opening FLAC files. If you open the file from within Sound Forge (File, Open) you will not experience the problem. The problem is caused when you open a FLAC file from Windows File Manager.

Hi Colin, do you mean that right click -> open from WFM on FLAC files is what triggers this issue? Is that verified or a theory?

I mostly use SF to edit wav-files (and then use dBpoweramp to covert to FLAC, which is my archive format) but I guess I occasionally open a FLAC to inspect it and then I usually right click from WFM.

This still shouldn't happen of course but it's good to know if this is indeed the verified trigger of the problem.

Yup, this has been my experience.

I accidentally opened a FLAC file using the double-click method yesterday. Sound Forge opened as expected, I did what I set out to do - all was well. Since then I have shut down the machine, restarted it and opened Sound Forge Pro 10. No problem.

The file I opened was a commercial FLAC purchased from 7Digital - worked fine. Could the encoder of the FLAC file be the source of the problem? Just putting it out there.