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May 15th, 2019, 08:10 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
VBGold
Hey guys. I've been trying to reach support at a company called VBGold for a while now with no luck. They were really big at one point making a few awesome commercial OCX's for VB. The web site is still up but no answer on even the order line phone or fax number. The "live support" seems dead too. I'm guessing they are out of business? Anybody know for sure?
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May 16th, 2019, 12:30 AM
#2
Lively Member
Re: VBGold
Umm.. all I can say is their web sites (http://www.vbgold.com/Contact.shtml) is still there, and google search suggests it was last updated 17-apr-19. Their rolling banner on the home page refers to a special offer price than ends 31-mar-19 though. They certainly were active recently....
Have you tried 'live chat' on their contact page?
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May 16th, 2019, 12:56 AM
#3
Lively Member
Re: VBGold
Oddly, it looks like they have registered their web site via porkbun.com that exists specifically to anonymize the actual web site owners from WHOIS lookups. So you'll have to do more digging to find a 'back door' contact to VBGold.
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May 16th, 2019, 01:22 AM
#4
Re: VBGold
I think you'll have to wait some days. It must be now handled by one person that is doing also other things.
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May 16th, 2019, 09:34 AM
#5
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
Re: VBGold
I finally got a reply. Turns out when you replace your hard drive (I went from HD to SSD) the "product ID" on their controls change. So you have to send them the new product ID and they will generate a new activation code. Not exactly fast turn-around on email support but I can confirm they are still in business. I guess I'll end up being down for a week or so but hopefully they will sort me out. Thanks for the replies.
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May 16th, 2019, 10:25 AM
#6
Hyperactive Member
Re: VBGold
Originally Posted by Darkbob
I guess I'll end up being down for a week or so but hopefully they will sort me out
I hope they never go out of business, you will never be able to reactivate. I'm trying to switch to more open solutions and asking vendors for activation free versions.
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May 17th, 2019, 08:57 AM
#7
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
Re: VBGold
Yep. I hear you. I found a program called ResizerOCX from Larcom and Young. It appears to work just as well as the one from VBGold. It's only available on ComponentSource and only for another month. The company is going out of business and won't be selling after that. But they do promise to offer Email support for 5 years to existing customers. Even if they don't respond to email, you can use the component as a developer with just a serial number - no server side registration. So a much safer alternative to things from VBGold.
I've also replaced a Video Capture control from a different company that used Server based registration codes. I went with an open source option.
I'm down to just one Server registered license for an image processing control. The company has become much slower to respond to email over the past year if they respond at all. I fear the worst.
Once the control is registered it continues to run without any server intervention that I can detect. I have two licenses for that control. I put one on my laptop and I put the other one on a virtual machine, cloned that machine and burned it to a DVD to keep it on ice. Hopefully if/when the company goes out of business I can still use the virtual machine.
I HATE computer piracy and totally understand vendors wanting some protection but that said, if you buy a control and base your product around that control you need some security. You need to know you can use the control even if the company goes belly up. I did a quick test. I booted up the Virtual machine on two different PC's in "Airplane" mode and it booted up OK in both cases.
Last edited by Darkbob; May 17th, 2019 at 09:04 AM.
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May 17th, 2019, 09:23 AM
#8
Fanatic Member
Re: VBGold
Charging one time fee for a product is why these companies die. They depend on new buyers, while if they used a subscription model, they get a steady income per year, that guarantees that they have the funds needed to keep improving the software "forever".
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May 17th, 2019, 09:32 AM
#9
Addicted Member
Re: VBGold
Originally Posted by qvb6
Charging one time fee for a product is why these companies die. They depend on new buyers, while if they used a subscription model, they get a steady income per year, that guarantees that they have the funds needed to keep improving the software "forever".
Visual studio is free, java is free, there are fewer and fewer people prepared to pay for tools or end user software as time passes.
Software should be free!
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May 17th, 2019, 09:41 AM
#10
Re: VBGold
Originally Posted by vbrad
Visual studio is free, java is free, there are fewer and fewer people prepared to pay for tools or end user software as time passes.
Software should be free!
Sorry but I don't think so. Nobody lives for free. Have you been to the supermarket lately?
What do you do in programming, do you work professionally or as a hobbyist?
Last edited by Eduardo-; May 17th, 2019 at 09:57 AM.
Reason: spelling
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May 17th, 2019, 02:24 PM
#11
Lively Member
Re: VBGold
There's another Resizer OCX I just found (with source code) at: https://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/...=3782&lngWId=1
Not tried it (yet), but with source code it may be altered/improved/extended etc to suit needs.
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May 22nd, 2019, 12:24 PM
#12
Thread Starter
Fanatic Member
Re: VBGold
Originally Posted by MikeSW17
Nice find. It works well with basic controls. Not so well with Tabs or custom controls unfortunately. When you switch tabs, for example, they end up blank. Plus it doesn't have an "enabled" property so you can't shut if off. But good for very basic projects I'm sure. I suppose with enough work you could modify it. The source code is all there.
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