Participating Frequently

Answered

How to activate old permanent license software on new computer

Forum|Forum|7 days ago
August 28, 2026
13 replies
69 views

I have an older permanent license for Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium and for Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium. I have moved both of these products to a new Windows computer. I know the software is old, but it does what I need, and I don’t use it often enough to justify the cost of new versions. After dealing with a driver issues that caused crashes, I managed to get the software installed on Windows 11 25H2, and it seems to work fine. The problem is that the activation does not work because Adobe long ago discontinued the activation servers. I keep getting a message that I have too many activations already, even though I deactivated those on my older computers. I recall this happened to me about 5 years ago when I moved the software to a different computer. Adobe support did something (I don’t recall what) that cleared up the issue. Today, however, Adobe support told me they are not trained at all on the older software, so I need to go to this forum for an answer. Can anyone help me out? It is a permanent license I am just trying to use as is.

On another topic, when I open Photoshop, the program opens fine and seems to work, but the menu bar at the top is tiny, with almost unreadable text. I assume that is related to the 4K screen on my new computer. I already have the UI setting for large text, the biggest setting. Some of the drop down menus have decent size text, others have the barely readable text and related check boxes and sliders. What can I do about that? So far, I have only seen this in Photoshop 5.5. Indesign, for example, looks fine.

I hope I can get my answers. Thanks.

Correct answer Nancy OShea

CS5 is unsupported, You’ve been using it for years at your own risk of failures.
A perpetual license is NOT permanent.
CS5 shipped with two activations, for installing on up to two devices.
Once those activations are used up, the license can’t be activated again.

Adobe can’t reset your activation count. Only you can do it from a supported computer that CS5 is installed on. Failing that, you’ll need other solutions for Win11.

Compared to replacing hardware, software is a relatively cheap investment, There are free & paid services available for Win11 & mobile devices.

Post back if you require recommendations.

Nancy OShea

Correct answer

Community Expert

CS5 is unsupported, You’ve been using it for years at your own risk of failures.
A perpetual license is NOT permanent.
CS5 shipped with two activations, for installing on up to two devices.
Once those activations are used up, the license can’t be activated again.

Adobe can’t reset your activation count. Only you can do it from a supported computer that CS5 is installed on. Failing that, you’ll need other solutions for Win11.

Compared to replacing hardware, software is a relatively cheap investment, There are free & paid services available for Win11 & mobile devices.

Post back if you require recommendations.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

John T Smith

Community Expert

> In both instances the programs reported a successful deactivation

That MAY be a false message due to the connection not being made at the Adobe server

TLS 1.2/1.3 is now required for that old computer to connect
test your browser https://clienttest.ssllabs.com:8443/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/unable-to-reach-adobe-servers.html

M

markadobelangAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the detailed information. I ran the tests. The adobe page had a link specifically for Creative Suite 5 and 5.5. My browser on the old computer successfully passed that test by getting the pong message. I also ran the SSL labs page, and it said I have all the latest protocols active. However, when I open my old Adobe products, they open with a screen to accept the terms and then to enter a registration number. So the products on my old computer consider themselves deactivated, as they indicated when I did the operation. And my computer passes the protocol test and shows it can access the Adobe servers. I do not know what else I can do. For some reason, your servers do not seem to credit me with the deactivations that the software show were completed. Please advise next steps. Perhaps there is some way I can provide whatever parameter of the computer your servers use to track activations. Other software providers let me log in to a private portal that shows what computers their software is activated on, and allows me to add or delete computers there. Thanks.

John T Smith

Community Expert

I don’t work for Adobe so I have **NO** idea how to proceed with a failed deactivation… chat support won’t work, since Adobe no longer supports those old programs… but you can try

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

- and enter AGENT in the box asking How can we help you?

M

markadobelangAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. I don’t need any download links. I installed both packages, and Adobe Acrobat, from the original DVD media. I used the license keys I have, and it let the install complete just fine. (After I found out how to disable the old CDRom driver that crashes the computer after the Adobe install on the latest Windows 11.) I thought I was fine. However, when I then came back a couple of weeks later to use the software, both Indesign and Photoshop showed screens saying that I had already activated on two computers and refused activation. I went back to the oldest computer I have, named Dell7510, and deactivated the two Adobe suites. In both instances the programs reported a successful deactivation. However, I still get the message on opening the programs that it is already activated on 2 computers.

I just tried it again, and this time it activated Photoshop (from the Production Suite) on the new computer, but still says Indesign is already activated on 2 computers. I am not sure what is happening. I have only 1 computer that I use regularly. I just bought a new one for my main computer, and have been transferring all my software there. I will keep the previous one to use if I need a backup at any time. The Dell7510 was the backup for my previous one, and I won’t be using it any more. So I really only want two activations, one for the new computer and one for the one it replaced that I will use as a backup. Perhaps the Adobe activation computers have gotten confused at some point. I can share my computer names if that will help. Thanks again.

And any thoughts on the tiny menu bar on Photoshop?

Jeff_A_Wright

Community Manager

Thank you for posting @markadobelang and for being a long-time Adobe customer!

I understand how frustrating it can be to move older perpetual-license software to a new computer, especially when different products have different licensing and installation requirements.

I reviewed your account, and your Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium education license still has an activation available. However, education licenses require the original educational installation files provided with the purchase. The downloads available through Adobe's public download pages are for retail licenses. They won't work with an education serial number, so you'll need to find the original installation media for that product.

Your Design Premium CS5 retail license has reached its maximum allowed activations. Because it is a retail license, you can use the installers Adobe provides. Still, you will first need to successfully deactivate one of the previous installations before activation on the new computer can complete.

For information on locating installers for non-subscription products, please see:

Download non-subscription Adobe software
https://community.adobe.com/announcements-616/download-non-subscription-adobe-software-554002

For information on resolving activation limit errors and deactivating a previous installation, please see:

Activation limit reached for non-subscription Adobe desktop applications.
https://community.adobe.com/announcements-616/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscription-adobe-desktop-applications-565112

Please update this public discussion thread if you have any additional questions, @markadobelang.

M

markadobelangAuthor

Participating Frequently

My questions now relate to what I have shared. I am OK with the need to deactivate installations on older computers before they can be activated on another computer., and I have no need for installation links. My problem is that I did process deactivations, but Adobe did not give me credit for the deactivations. As I noted, I went back to my oldest computer after seeing your response, and I deactivated both the Design Premium 5 and Production Premium 5.5 Suites. In both cases, I was shown a screen that appeared to be accessing the internet, and then given a message that the deactivation was successful. Now, when I go back and open those programs, I see only a screen asking for a license code. So my software, at least, believes that the valid activations I had for those two suites on that computer are no longer active and presumably freed for other use. However, when I try to use them on my new computer, I still get a message that I have already used my two activations. I have no idea what happened. I also tried the tests for network protocols/access suggested by John Smith, and they were OK on all my computers, including the oldest one. Only someone from Adobe can look into this for me, and I believe you are it. I hope you can offer some suggestions.

I also reviewed the Adobe suites on the computer I am just now replacing.. I find that the Design Premium 5 (Indesign) is still working there. However, the Production Premium 5.5 (Photoshop) has also been deactivated there. I think I did that while I was trying to get the software installed on my new computer. That may be the one available activation that you identified and allowed me to activate Photoshop on my new computer. So apparently that deactivation worked, but the ones on my oldest computer did not work. I guess I could try deactivating Design 5 also on the immediate past computer to see if it would give me an activation for the new one. Frankly, as I noted, I don’t use the software that often, so having only one activation on my new main computer is something that would work for me. However, given my experience with the older computer, I am afraid that deactivation might also fail.

Again, I know I am pushing to use older, unsupported software licensed under a system Adobe no longer supports. However, when I was working regularly and using the software more, I purchased several versions with permanent licenses over a period of several years -- so it is not like I was a poor customer. I am now retired and just using the older software occasionally, and for that the older software does what I need. Thanks again for your assistance.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

I think you’re spinning your wheels.

There’s no guarantee that you can use 16-year old legacy software that was built for WinXP on a new Win11 machine. IMO, that’s an unrealistic expectation.

Keep old products installed on old machines and use for as long as you can.
Use compatible new products on new devices.

Good luck.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.