A black window swallowed his screen. White text scrolled like a spell:
It called itself Protexis Licensing Service . Three weeks ago, it had appeared after a routine Windows update. Every time Elias launched CorelDRAW, a grey box would bloom in the center of the screen: “Waiting for licensing service to respond...” Corel X5 Remove Protexis.cmd
No grey box. No wait. The splash screen appeared—that familiar, gaudy gradient—and two seconds later, the workspace opened. Clean. Responsive. A black window swallowed his screen