Activating Old Versions of Dreamweaver [CS3 is dead]

More and more software companies are finding ways to keep old versions from being installed.  Most of us out there who are not corporate entites with deep pockets paid dearly for the software packages we now cannot load.  The easiest way to do this is to tell the activation server not to activagte older than xx version.  This means that hundreds, if not thousands of dollars are simply ... gone.

The only defense against this is a backup system.  Everytime you load a new software package, you clone the drive, the whole drive, so when (not if) the drive crashes, you just reload.

There's gotta be another way.  Dreamweaver 3.0 was a GREAT package.  It did all I ever wanted.  Then, my hard drive crashed.  Dreamweaver 3.0 would not reload.  Lightroom 6 would not reload.  A non-Adobe CAD program I paid a LOT for would not reload. Fortunately, Elements 15 reloaded.

When Adobe Acrobat crashed, years ago, I went with Foxit.  When Internet Explorer kept crashing, I went with Chrome.  I'm considering FAR less expensive CAD (Mach4).  I'm looking seriously at freeware HTML editors.  If the goal of shutting down old versions is to crowbar the user into buying new stuff, in my case, it ain't working. The user just drifts away from your stuff as being too dangerous to spend money on, and climb the learning curve.

PLEASE.  Relent from this policy.