Reinstalled Acrobat Pro 7.0....Adobe preventing activation

[danield39540635]

Circumstances necessitated my need to wipe my desktop system and "clean install" my Win 7 Home Premium, and now I'm reinstalling my software.  I have reinstalled my copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro 7.0 (from disk) and entered my key, and the software has loaded into my computer.  But I can't use it because Adobe is requiring "Activation", either by phone or by server.

I call the phone number....recording says "This number is no longer good for activation, go line to activate".

I go on line, and there are instructions for activating other Adobe products except mine.  A hour of researching the website makes clear that Adobe provides no avenue for re-activating my product.

My Adobe account acknowledges that I own this particular software, but that I don't qualify for support and can't even talk to an Adobe representative to resolve my reload/reactivation issue.  The only option it allows is to post a question in forums.

I'd greatly appreciate a straight answer: Given that there is no apparent way to re-activate my purchased Acrobat software, is Adobe forcing me to buy a more recent version of their product?

[Discussion moved by moderator from Acrobat Reader to Installing, Updating, & Subscribing to Acrobat]

[kglad · Accepted solution]

acrobat 7 isn't compatible with win 7, but adobe isn't the problem.  you can install and use the associated serial number from here, but you can expect problems,

Download Adobe Acrobat 7 and Adobe Creative Suite 2 products

[danield39540635]

The suggested solution is not helpful because you are assuming a software incompatibility.  This copy of Acrobat 7.0 Pro is compatible with my Windows 7 Home Premium OS... and has been for many years.  I'm doing clean installs from existing disks, so there's been no change to this compatibility.   

The problem is the activation window on startup; the activation window hijacks the application and won't allow usage without entering the activation code. 

I can find no discussion thread or solutions in the Adobe Forums that matches this problem.

Please....there's either a generic activation code that works, or there's a work-around.  If there's no solution to this, I am being asked to pay more for a product I have already purchased. 

[kglad]

click the link and read.

[Test Screen Name]

Please read it again. That is the complete and ONLY solution to running Acrobat 7. You must BOTH download the replacement software AND use the replacement serial. If you don't care that large parts don't work, like the PDF printer and Word converter, and presumably you don't, it should be as before.

[danield39540635]

The suggested solution WILL work, despite the fact it triggers ransom-ware alerts from my virus protection.  Would much prefer the simple solution - keep what is known to function and simply make the activation window go away - rather than downloading another software package containing potential functionality issues.   

Thanks for your help.

[Test Screen Name]

You couldn't make the activation window go away because the version you WERE running needed to activate and never could. The new software (well, not actually new, because it's still the ancient version 7 and still doesn't work fully on Windows 7 and later) is identical except that it doesn't need activation.