Trying to activate Photoshop cs5 without success

If the device list is empty but Photoshop still says you've reached the activation limit, the previous activation may not have been released correctly. Since CS5 activation relies on Adobe's activation servers, this is usually an account-side issue rather than your installation. I'd contact Adobe Support and provide your serial number so they can reset the activation count. Also, are you installing the same CS5 edition (Standard vs. Extended) that your license is for?

CS5 from 2010 was built to run on WinXP & Win7, not Windows 11.  Even if you manage to install it, legacy software wasn’t designed to work with fast chips, large memory devices, and advanced file management systems. This could be all for nothing.

Best advice: leave CS5 on your old device and use it for it as long as you can.

Use modern products on new devices.

REPLACEMENT OPTIONS:

• Photoshop Express (free mobile app for iOS & Android)
• Adobe Express (online image editing, free & premium plans)
  https://www.adobe.com/express/pricing
• Photoshop Elements (3-year license)
  https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html
• Photography Plan (Photoshop & Lightroom bundle)
  https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html

Hope that helps.

IF your computer did not properly link to the Adobe server your computer will show deactivated, but the process did not work on Adobe’s side

You don’t mention your operating system… if Windows 7 read this

If you have Windows 7 be sure to do the EASYFIX.MSI in step 2 of the link I provided before
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

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/troubleshoot-download-install-logs.html#error113

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/core/plan-design/security/enable-tls-1-2

Thank you for posting, ​@crea7or.

I appreciate your long-term use of our software. I apologize for any problems you have encountered managing the activations included with your purchase.

Please see 

 For information on reclaiming any used activations from a previous computer. Please see @John T Smith’s warning below about the need to upgrade the operating system to successfully send the activation request.

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

1st, activated devices is only for subscriptions, not serial number programs

2nd, DE-activation requires connecting to the Adobe server

TLS 1.2/1.3 is now required to connect https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/eol-tls-support.html