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Participant
October 13, 2026
Question

Am i out of luck if i need to reset my computer?

Hi all,

I recently the blue screen of death on my computer. Thought that i created a restore point the day before installing CS6, but nothing was found..  I guess, i’m wondering if i’m down to 1 computer that i can use now? No way to remotely remove dead computers? Nothing shows up in my active devices in my account.

 

If i am sol.. This sucks. We paid a lot of money for our copies of CS, that are legit and not pirated. Yet we can’t install it locally or remove devices that we can’t physically deactivate them on? I could go on this rant for days, if i understand correctly that you get 2 devices and then your key is no longer good, and you have no ability to remove dead computers.. I own my copy, at the same time i don’t own my copy? wtf??… -_-;;

 

Anyway, any clear answer on if i’m sol on that device would be helpful, or if there’s a way to activate the full version locally since it pushes you to login after typing in the key.

    1 reply

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 13, 2026

    I’m a little confused. Blue screen of death isn’t literally “death”. It’s just a Windows crash. Normally you start it right up again - but you may need to do some investigation to find out which driver or component crashed it.

     

    All that said, if the machine really is dead, then yes, you will have used up one the two Photoshop activations and there’s no way now to get it back (there used to be, but this software is now 15 years old and all support has ended).

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