Really Angry - Roxio Easy CD & DVD Install Problem

Greetings fellow Geeks -

I am trying to install Roxio Easy CD & DVD Burning. I am not sure what version it is, the box does not indicate. I do believe it is version 6 though.

Now, I bought this program after weighing some options. This was cheaper than Nero, and I only need to copy data to DVD. I do not need all that extra junk. I am convinced these companies honestly believe they change your life in incredible ways when you own their products. Which reminds me, once I bought an Umax scanner years ago and the install installed a screensaver and activated it without my knowledge I promptly returned it, and gave them a call and gave them an earful. Anyway, back to topic . . . .

I did not open the box at first because I was not confident in the product after I did some more research. It seemed many consumers were having similar problems with little support from Roxio. This morning I just went ahead and attempted to install the software. Well, I received the following message during the install process :

"Error 1402. Could not open key: Unknown\Richtexttrl.l\CLSID. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel."

Specs are in my sig - mainly XP all patched and the new DVD drive is an NEC 3550-A.

I have gleaned that this is typically an Win98/ME problem. There was only one other person on the support forum who was installing in XP with this problem. I believe as of yet, his issue is unresolved. Someone sugguested to be sure he had admin rights and disabled all protective software like antivirus, spyware, etc. No luck for me.

Compounding the matter is the silly serial key. I have no idea why companies use both "O's" and zeros for CD keys and serial numbers. I do it both ways and I get no error message, so who knows.

It seems to me that overall this type of software causes many headaches. Is simply the nature of this beast? I have read many instances in my research so far stating that Roxio tech support is woeful. I know that it is typical that only dissatisfied people speak up, so who knows.

Now, I am not really complaining, my next step is to post on the Roxio forum and to contact their Tech Support via email. In the meantime, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for alternative software?

Thanks for any advice.