Hi,
SKS8 is causing problems on my PC too. It crashes at startup. Registration does work with registration file, not with online activation ( my win7 internet is highly unstable, but relatively fast on linux). Before registrating i had the annoying half screen banner , but SKS8 itself seemed to working fine but unusable since banner is so big..
http://storage.stardock.com/files/SkinStudio7_free.exe does work fine on my PC, except reload skin option and skintester is a bit buggy ( loads sme icons only after relogin).Its a bit old and outdated and does have limited functionality etc, but i did design my themes with it, and it works fine for 6/10 skins.I bet its good for the beginning of theming.
And please start a support ticket at stardock after that . Think and hope they could help you.
regards bluedxca93