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how do i install cs5 on mac

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
May 18, 2025
2 replies
1540 views

basically i have an install disc for CS5 design premium but it only has the .exe and there is no .app file. is there somewhere i can download it from

Correct answer Jeff Arola

On the Mac side the last operating system Photoshop CS5 or any CS5 Applications will work on is macOS Mojave 10.14 because of Apple removing the ability for later Mac operating systems to run 32 bit applications.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/103076

Even though Photoshop CS5 and other CS5 applications are 64 bit, some of the included components like the installer are 32 bit.

You didn't say what model and year Mac you have, but if it's anything within the last several years then macOS Mojave won't run on those systems.

Jeff Arola

Correct answer

Community Expert

On the Mac side the last operating system Photoshop CS5 or any CS5 Applications will work on is macOS Mojave 10.14 because of Apple removing the ability for later Mac operating systems to run 32 bit applications.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/103076

Even though Photoshop CS5 and other CS5 applications are 64 bit, some of the included components like the installer are 32 bit.

You didn't say what model and year Mac you have, but if it's anything within the last several years then macOS Mojave won't run on those systems.

A

Alexander28538667s8d1Author

Participant

Oh, so I won't be able to run it because I have a newer Mac... thanks for the answer though.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Oh, so I won't be able to run it because I have a newer Mac... thanks for the answer though.

By @Alexander28538667s8d1

As I remember it, CS4 and CS5 were a nightmare because the 32 bit OS could only use les than 3.5GB of RAM (Windows — I don't know how OSX faired). If you tried allocating all 3.5GB to Photoshop, the OS would run poorly. You couldn't print as there was RAM for print spooling, and third party plugins wouldn't barely work.

Windows had its Page file, and Photoshop had Scratch space, but we were using dog slow HDDs at that time that could manage less than 100MB/s. The upper chart below is the Samsung 990PRO and currently the fastest M.2 NVMe drive on Toms Hardware. Photoshop CS4 was released in 2008. I think HDDs were still running at 5400rpm at that time! The second chart is a Seagate Momentus (which I'd never heard of) which Google told me was from the same year. The 990 Pro is > 180 time faster than the HDD and that's going to be reflected in how fast Photoshop uses its Scratch files.

As I remember it, Photoshop was not a great user experience at that time. CS6 on a 64 bit OS was a breath of fresh air. You'd have to be a masochist to put up with CS4 now.

D Fosse

Community Expert

If it's CS5, and not CS5.5 - dot five - the question is moot. It can't be activated, the servers have been shut down.

In any case it sounds like a Windows installer which wouldn't work on a Mac. If there is a serial number there, it's a Windows serial number that wouldn't work on Mac. Creative Suite licenses were platform specific (unlike CC which is cross-platform).

A

Alexander28538667s8d1Author

Participant

I installed it fine on Windows, activated and all, and the CD comes with a macos key.

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