Skip to main content
L
l_8871
Known Participant
August 13, 2024
Answered

How to continue using the CS perpetual license I purchased

  • August 13, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 7173 views

Many years ago, I bought a set of Photoshop CS1 boxed products. Although pirated software was rampant in my country at that time, I did not agree with the practice of using pirated software, so I spent a high price to purchase it. However, now it seems that this was actually a wrong decision. Purchasing genuine Adobe software actually does not provide any guarantee! CS1 for Win is the first product to use activation technology, and CS1 for Mac does not require activation. Unfortunately, I purchased the for win version!Because I am not an industry user, I only use it occasionally and it remained idle for many years afterwards,Recently, when I wanted to use it again, I found that it could no longer be activated,I have already communicated with Adobe customer service 6 times regarding this issue. Can you believe it?They should be very clear about the problem I am facing, but they cannot solve it. They repeatedly provide mechanical responses(EOL), urging you to pay the subscription fee or seek help on the forum! However, during communication with the customer service department, it was learned that Adobe had closed the activation server, resulting in the inability to activate!But they refused to solve the problem that caused me trouble because the version I was using had already stopped serving. Unless I pay to purchase a new version!Oh my god, when I tried to reason with the customer service, they only told me that the product had already been discontinued,But the question is, the product has been discontinued, what is the connection between this and users who have already purchased permanent licenses continuing to use the product?I don't need technical support, nor do I need to use this product on the latest system.I just hope to continue using the products with permanent authorization on my old computer with the old system installed.But let's take a look at what Adobe has done? Constantly asking me to purchase new subscription products, no matter what I say, mechanically repeatedly sending and rejecting my reasonable demands.But I just want to continue using the product that I purchased with a perpetual license, what did I do wrong?
The following is a Q&A on Adobe's official website regarding activation issues when launching CS products for the first time.

Q: What happens if the product is discontinued?
A: Adobe is fully committed to honoring the terms of its Product License Agreements. In the event that a product is discontinued, Adobe will enable automatic approval of all activation requests for that product or provide a means to remove activation outright. In either case, the customer will not experience any change in software capabilities.

Q: What happens if Adobe releases a newer version of Photoshop CS software? Will I be able to activate the older version?
A: Yes. Even after the older version of the product stops shipping, you can activate your copy of Photoshop CS.

Q: Will I be able to use the software in perpetuity? What happens if Adobe shuts down?
A: Adobe's Product License Agreements typically grant the user of an Adobe product the right to use it in perpetuity. Adobe plans to honor these agreements. In the unlikely event of the company's shutting down, we will enable automatic approval of all activation requests or provide other technical means allowing users to continue using our products.

Adobe's current approach is too disappointing, greedy and promises cannot be fulfilled! I hope brothers who have similar experiences can tell me how you solved this problem
I don't want to give up on this issue. It is my right to continue using the product I purchased, and Adobe should also fulfill its promise at that time to provide a version that can be used normally by all users whose software cannot be activated due to the deactivation of the activation server

    Correct answer kglad

    you can't activate anything prior to cs5.

    1 reply

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 13, 2024

    you can't activate anything prior to cs5.

    L
    l_8871Author
    Known Participant
    August 13, 2024

    Adobe should fulfill its commitment to provide special versions to permanently authorized users affected by activation

    R
    Retune
    Participating Frequently
    August 18, 2024

    @Retune,

    FYI,  Photoshop 7 from 2002 was built for much smaller 32-bit computers. It can't recognize the entire disk capacity on larger computers. You may experience frequent error messages like "not enough disk space or scratch disk full" despite having more than ample free space and RAM available.  When you can't complete tasks or save your work in PS7, that's usually why.  😝

     

    I suppose in theory one could keep using CS3 indefinitely.  Although I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to when Photoshop Elements can do more than CS3 ever could.

     

    That said:

    1) Keep Creative Suite on the ORIGINAL device & OS for which it was intended

    (RAM: 512 MB; PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon, Intel Core Duo; OS: Microsoft Windows XP S32, Windows Vista). 

    2) Never upgrade the system. 

    3) Never reinstall or attempt to re-activate the software. CS3's aged-out activation servers no longer exist.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite.html?promoid=19SCDRQK

     

    Or try Photoshop Elements free for 30 days. Elements is a one-time purchase, no subscription required.

    https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/free-trial.html

     

    PS. For a limited time only, Photoshop Elements is 40% off. Offer ends September 2, 2024.

     

    Hope that helps.

     


    The large disk issue is the 1TB limit I mentioned above. It's not just because PS7 is a 32-bit application (even CS3 is 32-bit), but a very specific disk size limit - you need a hard disk (or probably a partition) with <1TB free for scratch, writing files and (possibly) installation. But since my laptop, like many laptops, has only a 1TB SSD, this isn't an issue unless I try to write to an external drive directly from PS. Otherwise, PS7 seems perfectly happy on a modern i7 system running 64-bit Windows 11 with lots of RAM.

     

    As for old PS vs modern PS Elements - sure, lots of things have been added in the last couple of decades, but some basic PS features are still missing. Showing the Channel Mixer in the PS7 photo above wasn't entirely random. That's a really fundamental feature I use all the time that's missing from Elements unless you get some third party add-on. And in my case it's not just PS I need, but also (if less frequently) Illustrator and InDesign, software that would require the full £57/pm CC plan to use the current versions, and for which there are no Elements-style alternatives from Adobe. For now, my CS6 and CS3 versions still work.

     

    Since I have the special activation-free installer for CS3 Design Standard I don't have to worry about maintaining some clunky old P4 system either - I can still install CS3 packages like any other program on a modern system running Windows 11. Unfortunately I seem to be one of the lucky few who happened to notice this largely unadvertised installer was being offered by Adobe and was able to exchange my original product key for the special installer and key before they discontinued it shortly afterwards. I'd rather use CS6  (and currently do), but at some point I imagine it will be impossible to install it. So I'll keep the activation-free CS3 installer around in case it's useful It's likely to be the last version that Adobe cannot disable. I don't really need to use PS7, but it's interesting that it still runs, and it has nearly all the features I actually use even in PS CS6.

     

    However, I will emphasise once again that software as old as PS7 or CS3 may present significant security risks. Open a malicious file in one of these applications, and very bad things can happen. In production environments, use only up to date, fully patched software.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices