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Mara257535098pl2
Participant
August 22, 2022
Answered

Adobe creative suite 5.5 and Windows 11

Does adobe creative suite 5.5 work on Windows 11?

Nancy OShea
Nancy OSheaCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 22, 2022

CS5 is discontinued & unsupported.  It's never been tested on Win11 and never will be.

We can make no guarantees it will work on your system.

 

You can gamble & try it or just hold on to Win10 until you're ready to replace with modern software.

 

MODERN OPTIONS:
Photoshop Elements or Premier Elements (approx USD $100, no subscription needed).
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

Creative Cloud Photography Plan (approx $10/month for 12 months). Includes the following:

  • Photoshop CC and Photoshop on iPad
  • Camera Raw
  • Lightroom on desktop, mobile and the web
  • Lightroom Classic
  • Portfolio website + hosting
  • Adobe Express (free starter plan)
  • Bridge
  • 20 GB cloud storage (upgradable to 1 TB).

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

Premium Adobe Express ($10/month).

  • Creative Cloud Express app (web and mobile)
  • Premiere Rush (desktop and mobile)
  • Photoshop Express (mobile)
  • Spark Video (mobile)
  • Spark Page (mobile)
  • Adobe Portfolio + hosting
  • 100 GB of cloud storage
  • All premium templates and design assets including the entire collection of over 160 million royalty-free Adobe Stock photo collection.

https://helpx.adobe.com/express/using/express-overview.html

Creative Cloud All Apps (51 + apps & services) and Single Apps Plans
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
View reply

7 replies

wonderful_guide652c
Participating Frequently
August 11, 2026

CS5 runs JUST FINE on Windows 11.  But, the greedy people at adobe refuse to deactivate if there is a problem with the computer which necessitated an uninstall.  Unfortunately, the technicians did not DEACTIVATE before uninstalling.   So the ONLY reason that CS5 will not install fully now is because adobe wants to charge people monthly despite having them pay $600+ for the software years ago.  I sad this gives adobe a very bad name.

 

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Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 22, 2022

CS5 is discontinued & unsupported.  It's never been tested on Win11 and never will be.

We can make no guarantees it will work on your system.

 

You can gamble & try it or just hold on to Win10 until you're ready to replace with modern software.

 

MODERN OPTIONS:
Photoshop Elements or Premier Elements (approx USD $100, no subscription needed).
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

Creative Cloud Photography Plan (approx $10/month for 12 months). Includes the following:

  • Photoshop CC and Photoshop on iPad
  • Camera Raw
  • Lightroom on desktop, mobile and the web
  • Lightroom Classic
  • Portfolio website + hosting
  • Adobe Express (free starter plan)
  • Bridge
  • 20 GB cloud storage (upgradable to 1 TB).

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

Premium Adobe Express ($10/month).

  • Creative Cloud Express app (web and mobile)
  • Premiere Rush (desktop and mobile)
  • Photoshop Express (mobile)
  • Spark Video (mobile)
  • Spark Page (mobile)
  • Adobe Portfolio + hosting
  • 100 GB of cloud storage
  • All premium templates and design assets including the entire collection of over 160 million royalty-free Adobe Stock photo collection.

https://helpx.adobe.com/express/using/express-overview.html

Creative Cloud All Apps (51 + apps & services) and Single Apps Plans
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html

 

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Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
wonderful_guide652c
Participating Frequently
August 11, 2026

It works JUST FINE on Windows 11.  I have used it on 11 for 5-6 years, no issues.  Unfortunately, uninstalled recently by techs to move it to a different drive; they did not deactivate first (we did not know), so I'm screwed.  Adobe refuses to assist with deactivation since they claim CS5 has reached its “end of life.”  When something still works great, it is not at end-of-life, in my opinion.  Instead, it just means they want to push you into a pricey subscription, and I won't do it.  So much for the $600 software I bought years ago.

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kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2026

​@wonderful_guide652c 

 

can you reinstall on that win 11 computer (and on the same hard drive where it was previously located) and if you do does it automatically activate?

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kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 22, 2022

yes, but it may not be easy.  a number of people have posted about recent problems activating their cs5 and cs6 programs.  cs5.5 is going to have the same issues which don't really seem related some much to the programs themselves, but users use of older os'es with browsers not having tls 1.2 support.  that shouldn't be an issue for a win 11 user.

 

of course, you'll need a valid serial number (6 groups of 4 numbers) to activate, and you may need to use compatibility mode to install, but compatibility mode has a part of windows (including win 11) for a long time.  Run Older Programs in Compatibility Mode in Windows 11/10 (online-tech-tips.com)

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