Acrobat 8.1 won't register with Windows 10

[Guest]

I am running Windows 10, I had to re install Acrobat 8.  The issue is I can't register the product, Adobe no longer supports my version, does anyone have any ideas?

[John T Smith]

The activation server for CS2 (and Acrobat 7) has been turned off, but I have not seen anything that indicates that the CS3 (and later) activation server isn't working

What error message do you see?

[Guest]

I contacted Adobe support and they said they no longer support Adobe 8, and referred me to this forum.  When I attempt to activate it says I am not connected to the internet, and now a new is it says my serial number is not valid.

      From: John T Smith <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

To: <Removed by Moderator>

Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2017 8:30 PM

Subject:  Acrobat 8.1 won't register with Windows 10

Acrobat 8.1 won't register with Windows 10

created by John T Smith in Downloading, Installing, Setting Up - View the full discussionThe activation server for CS2 (and Acrobat 7) has been turned off, but I have not seen anything that indicates that the CS3 (and later) activation server isn't working What error message do you see? If the reply above answers your question, please take a moment to mark this answer as correct by visiting: https://forums.adobe.com/message/9655486#9655486 and clicking ‘Correct’ below the answer Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread, not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply, either reply to this email or visit the message page: Please note that the Adobe Forums do not accept email attachments. If you want to embed an image in your message please visit the thread in the forum and click the camera icon: https://forums.adobe.com/message/9655486#9655486 To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at , click "Following" at the top right, & "Stop Following"  Start a new discussion in Downloading, Installing, Setting Up by email or at Adobe Community For more information about maintaining your forum email notifications please go to https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1516624.  This email was sent by Adobe Community because you are a registered user.

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[Guest]

I contacted Adobe support and they said 8.1 is no longer supported and referred me to this forum for assistance. The error if either I need to check my internet connection or the serial number is not valid.  That is odd because I coped the serial number from my account in my accounts of the Adobe website.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Moving this discussion to the Installing, Updating, & Subscribing to Acrobat forum.

[try67]

Acrobat 8 is not compatible with Windows 10.

[Guest]

Thank you.

[petersteier]

This is not true; I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with the newest Windows 10, and Abrobat 8.1 is working nicely; however, it was installed when there was still Windows 8.1. On a new Surface Pro 4, it is stuck after the window has opened. I think there are some updates missing, from the time when my CDROM was distributed, which are installed on my Pro 3, but no longer available from Adobe for my Pro 4. I will certainly not pay EUR 70 per month for a Software I own already.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

It is true. I didn't say it won't work. I said it's not compatible, which means it's not tested on that OS and not supported by the manufacturer (Adobe) when used on it. So you use it at your own risk. Many people have reported that it worked fine, until a system update or some other change happened, and then it stopped working. If this application is critical for your work, I would not rely on it and would get a compatible version, but it's your call, of course.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Acrobat 8 (and 9 and X) are not supported on Windows 10. Your options are to upgrade Acrobat to at least version XI, or to downgrade Windows to a version that is compatible with Acrobat 8 (we are probably talking XP or Vista, you would have to check the release notes to find out). One option is to run Acrobat in a virtual machine that runs such an earlier version of Windows on top of Windows 10. That's what I do to run older versions of Acrobat. Keep in mind that Acrobat 8 has not received any security updates in a number of years, so running Acrobat 8 (or any other version of software that is not actively maintained anymore)  may be a potentially dangerous move.

[Rickjohns42]

Hi,

I have Windows 10 Pro 64 and have toyed with Acrobat 8.1, Distiller and Frame Maker 7.1 for some time now.

Sometimes they would work but just when you thought all was good another Windows update would throw it all out with faults like licence activation and sometimes with a crash and no response. After many hours and determination, I can now get all three to run consistently. The trick is, after a reboot or power on (not from sleep/standby), do not open any other program:

• Right click on Acrobat 8.1 and select the 'Run as Administrator' (not the compatibility mode, 'Run this program as administrator', leave this unticked.). In fact make sure nothing is selected for compatibility mode.
• Repeat the same for Acrobat, Distiller and FrameMaker if you have it.

Now all should be good.

I had been looking at the issue as an Adobe Acrobat issue all along but I believe it is actually a Windows issue.

My unfounded theory is that once Acrobat has grabbed the print spooler/token then its ok but if a Windows program has already grabbed the print spooler/token then it wont release it to Acrobat as it is a legacy software and not on Windows list.

Best of luck.

Rich

[Dov Isaacs]

There is no such “token” related to the printer spooler.

We're glad to hear that you somehow have Acrobat 8.1 running on your system, but quite frankly, this is really not recommended for any number of reasons including incompatibility with any modern version of Microsoft Office applications and especially due to a very large number of security vulnerabilities that have been fixed over the last nearly 13 years since Acrobat 8 was released.

          - Dov

[gregk71332441]

There is a patch that fixes the Flex licensing. I do not remember where on Adobe's site I got, probably the same place I got all the Acrobat 8 incremental updates, but it is called licensing_service_patch. As soon as that is installed Flex stops killing Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro

[sashab47479082]

licensing tool - https://www.adobe.com/support/contact/licensing_download_eula.html