My Advice About Windows 11 and Adobe Captivate

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Within the last month or so I've seen some questions and comments on the forums from users attempting to use Adobe Captivate on M1 Macs. It distresses me that some users don't do the research before upgrading their hardware or software before learning the hard way that one may not always be compatible with the other.

That's why I want to try to be preemptive with my advice about Adobe Captivate and Windows 11. An early unofficial release of Windows 11 has surfaced on the internet and many tech journalists have installed it to get the scoop in the tech news space. You might be tempted to find this download and install it on your computer, but my advice is to hold off.

I get it. I love shiny new things, especially in the tech industry, but I'm a practical person as well. I never update software on my production machine until I'm confident that it's not going to impact my work. I also tend not to install recent updates until the completion of any projects I'm presently working on. I have a secondary computer in my home that I don't use for work related stuff. I might install Windows 11 on that machine first, but only once an official release of the software is available. There may be bugs that Microsoft hasn't anticipated but we also have no way of knowing if Adobe Captivate will work well with this new OS. I'm sure that Adobe is hard at work partnering with Microsoft to ensure all its software will be compatible with the new OS. Be patient and only update when you are confident this innovative technology isn't going to prevent you from getting your work completed for your employer or your clients.

[RodWard]

Very good points Paul.  I fully support the need for caution in this case.  It's really no different to what we have long advised for Mac Users with their OS updates.  Thanks for giving us Windows users a reminder.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Thanks Rod. 

[Stagprime]

Wise words.

Microsoft updates/upgrades have a history of breaking things.

No need to rush on this.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

agreed

[patd65212457]

It would still be nice for Adobe to say when things will start working without explorer 11 installed.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

There is no requirement to have IE11 installed in order to run Adobe Captivate 2019. I know the system requirements page lists certain IE versions in order to run HTML5 but they also list several other browsers as well. I think this is more to the point that IF you are going to use IE11 then it must be at least version 9, 10, or 11 in order to be compatible with HTML5.

[davorimac]

These are valid points. However when I try to use my Macbook Pro M1 and the Captivate does not work, and also after I try to install it on Windows 11, and it says my system is not compatible, then you can't help but wonder how much effort there is for keeping this version up to date.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I would expect that you will have to upgrade to a new future release in order to have Adobe Captivate work on an M1 chip. I can't think of any software that was re-written to be compatible with different hardware beyond the software's initial release.

[Davor5E4C]

Thank you. I guess we will see if it becomes available. Also, I was able to install on Windows 11, but I had to install the Creative Cloud before starting Captivate install.

[sarmo71]

Windows 11 is now available. Any brave already updated? Any experience with W11 and Captivate? Any info from Adobe on this?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I wrote this article when Windows 11 was still a developer release. Now that it's mainstream I am using it with my Dell XPS 15 and everything seems fine. 

[RodWard]

Just today we saw one Captivate 2019 user come across a problem with Windows 11 that was fixed after rolling back to Windows 10. 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/captivate-discussions/when-im-creating-my-closed-captions-i-have-noti...

This may not affect you, but it could be the first of many small niggling issues.

I am choosing not to upgrade for the moment because I really doubt that the Captivate development team will be highky motivated to spend much time on 2019 when they have a new version coming out soon.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I had to teach a session of the Adobe Professional Certification: Adobe Captivate last week and after seeing this post you mentioned I rolled back to Windows 10. I think I will stay on Windows 10 for the time being. I can't think of a feature in Windows 11 that I despairately need in order to do my work.

If you think of Captivate as your automobile, and the operating system as merely the road you drive on, an upgraded operating system might offer a few new features but it doesn't change how things work inside Captivate.

[Suroky5]

Hi Paul.  As of Feb 2023 has all the problems with Windows 11 and Captivate been rectified with updates do you know? i.e. the CC issue?  I am just wondering if it is time to upgrade to 11.