Livingsoft has three different programs that are available in CD and download form. These are The Dress Shop Family, Hat Shop, and Home Dec Sampler.   All Dress Shop programs are contained within the single installation of The Dress Shop Family. This includes all design tools, pattern collections and pattern sets.

Any additional pattern sets, pattern collections, and design tools purchased, unless newly released, are already within your Dress Shop program. If the purchase is a new release, you will need to download and install a new update from the web site. Updates are always free. To activate any new purchases, enter the issued keycode into your existing or updated Dress Shop program. There are several ways to enter your keycodes into Dress Shop:

1. When purchased, a confirmation email is sent, along with the keycode(s) for the purchased product. From within your Dress Shop program, select File>Enter Keycodes and manually enter your code. When manually entering keycodes, keep in mind that there are no letters “O”, “L”, or “I”, but rather the numbers zero ‘0’ and/or one‘1’. 

2. Your Account page on our web site contains all of your purchased products and keycodes. You can access your Account page at any time by logging in with your email address and password. If you do not know your password, use the forgotten password link or email support@livingsoftnw.com   You can then manually enter your codes.

3. From within your Dress Shop program, using the Auto-retrieve feature. Go to Help>On the web>Get my activation codes (internet connection is required for this feature). Enter your email address and password and select ‘Get my codes’. Then, restart your Dress Shop program.

Hat Shop and Home Dec Sampler each require a keycode entered into the individual program to activate it. When manually entering keycodes, keep in mind that there are no letters “O”, “L”, or “I”, but rather the numbers zero ‘0’ and/or one‘1’.

Hat Shop also requires Microsoft’s Virtual Machine to draft the patterns. Most Windows XP computers do not have Microsoft’s VM. You can get this free download from our web site under Support > Documentation, Videos, Tutorials… The download and installation of Microsoft’s Virtual Machine will not effect anything in your computer other than allowing Hat Shop to draft and print your patterns.