Activating Photoshop CS

[SG85321]

I am trying to activate my software. My Photoshop CS (I know it is old but has worked fine for many years) suddenly was "not responding" and would not open. I uninstalled Creative Suite and reinstalled but am unable to activate the software. The online activation keeps telling me the site is unavailable and the toll phone line is not in service and the toll-free line has an hour and a half wait (if it will ever be answered at all). I need my Photoshop and I need it now. Please help.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright · Accepted solution]

SG85321 the activation server for Photoshop CS has been shut down.  Please see Looking to activate Creative Suite 2, Acrobat 7, or Macromedia products - http://forums.adobe.com/message/4919014#4919014?sdid=KCHDS which discusses how you can obtain a non-activating version.  You will want to download and install Photoshop CS2 from the offered Suite download.

[SG85321]

Thank you for your reply.  After a chat with Adobe tech support I was able to do this and it is running OK.

[johns93994462]

Hi Jeff, I know this thread is old but what if I only have an activation code for CS not CS2?

[John Waller]

Same solution applies.

Download CS2 and use the provided CS2 serial number.

You really don't have any other choice since Adobe has given you no way of activating CS.

[golyve]

I followed that link and got a 404 page not found error message.

What next?

[Adrian_the_Rock]

One small point I didn't see answered in any of the postings or discussions on this, but these download versions still only contain the original versions of the CS2 apps, without the various updates that were subsequently distributed to users.

I've recently had to download the no-activation version of Photoshop CS2 after having my old PC's hard disk cloned onto a larger drive.  This worked OK, and thankfully I still had copies of the install files for the various updates I needed (eg Photoshop 9.0.2, Bridge 1.0.4.6, Camera Raw 3.7), though Bridge does not display a spurious message claiming I don't have an Internet connection every time I start it up.  But for anyone who hasn't kept the install files for these updates, how would they upgrade the non-activation version to get the various updates that were originally distributed?