Installing Adobe Photoshop version 6.0 upgrade on Windows 11 [subject edited for clarity]

[davids16574943]

I have an original 3.5" floppy disk set for Photoshop 3.0 that I originally installed on a PC in 1997.

And from that also loaded (in 2011?) via a CS5 UPGRADE CDROM onto another later but now gone HP Windows Vista computer I upgraded to CS5 with a CDROM I had bought and still have with documentation. Recall having to work with Adobe customer support for some reason I don't recall the reason for to actually get that to load.

After that HP Windows Vista computer motherboard died 3+ years ago, I was able to load via a CS6 UPGRADE CDROM I purchased as a second device onto a 2016 Dell Windows 10 laptop.  Unfortunately  that laptop recently became unbootable due to a corrupted boot sector I will in the future bring down to a computer service with special software capable of rebuilding a few corrupt address on its hard drive. Thus cannot at this point disable the Adobe license since it cannot be booted.  I still have the HP Windows Vista computer hard drive that I potentially could access given a connector interface at a computer service shop.

When I try to directly load the Photoshop CS6 software on my new HP Omen 35L Windows 11 desktop system with the CS6 UPGRADE CDROM it asked to install a previous version CDROM so I installed the above noted CS5 UPGRADE CDROM. However it would not install Photoshop because it didn't detect a valid Adobe 4.0+ full path probably because the CS5 CDROM was an upgrade and not the full licensed media.  The Setup program doesn't ask for serial numbers or product keys and rather just wants to see the media. I vaguely recall that was why I had to work with Adobe previously. This time, Adobe customer support probably won't bother.  

So hoping for advice I haven''t considered.  

Of course, Adobe wants old hold outs like this person to upgrade to their CC subscription model that I may be forced to.  Functionally for my purposes, I've been fine running CS6.

David

[kglad]

i've never heard of needing to install a previous version in order to install an upgrade.  you just the previous version's serial number (and the upgrade's serial number) when trying to activate the upgrade.

[John Waller]

probably because the CS5 CDROM was an upgrade and not the full licensed media. 

By @davids16574943

That shouldn't matter. I always upgraded using the serial number from the earlier version upgrade as a qualifying serial number.

So when I installed CS6 as an upgrade, I entered the CS6 upgrade serial number then the CS5 upgrade serial number. That's all it took. There was no need to insert the CS5 DVD.

Both full version and upgrade DVDs included the full programme code. The serial number was all that mattered for licensing.

[davids16574943]

Expect the issue is that I don't yet have a valid previous version loaded onto my new Windows 11 HP Omen 35L desktop despite trying to verify the Adobe media choice action with my UPGRADE CS5 CDROM. As related above, both old computers I had Photoshop are no longer bootable. 

[davids16574943]

Note I do have some CS5 back-ups from my old computer Program Files (x86) folder on USB media that I could just copy into my new computer's hard drive and then try to use the second verification option above.  In any case, don't understand why using the CS5 UPGRADE CDROM didn't work and that may be why when I loaded CS6 onto my Dell laptop I had to receive phone help from Adobe customer service for unknown reasons in order to get that to install.  It may be something related to the specific product media?

[kglad]

yes, there can be cd issues that can be circumvented by copying the cd files to a hd or usb and installing from the copied files.

[davids16574943]

Some images of my media:

[davids16574943]

I loaded into my new HP desktop the backed up Program Files, Adobe folder that had about 5.5gb in it and then the Program Files (x86), Adobe folder that had about 1.2gb in it. I then tried to run the Photoshop CS6 executable and as expected that caused an error stating I needed to reload the CS6 software since the Registry also requires setup.

I then installed the UPGRADE CS6 CDROM and changed the verification to search for the previous installation on my C: hard drive. That caused an error also that related I need to contact Adobe Customer Service. Note also chose the second option and directly pointed to the Adobe folders.  So am stuck and apparently for unknown reasons due to the installation setup software, only Adobe Customer Service can move me past this point.

[kglad]

you're causing problems when copying files. other than installation files.

[kglad]

and you don't need a previous version to be installed in order to install/activate an upgrade version.

[davids16574943]

As you can see from my above post showing screen captures of the CS6 setup, it does ask to install previous media.  It may indeed be true that some product installation media does not ask such but my media version does.  Apparently when Adobe customer service helped me last time they were immediately aware of that limitation.

[davids16574943]

A couple more screen

<serial numbers removed-kglad>

captures showing my Adobe Account information.

[kglad]

posting serial numbers in public will get your licenses revoked.

[kglad]

can you restore your computer to a time prior to anything related to adobe?

[davids16574943]

No.  Note my new HP desktop computer didn't have any Adobe folders or files until I manually copied in the 2 back-ups noted above.  I can of course easily delete those.  To be clear, I cannot of course provide a copy of the initial installation files from those back-up copies and instead would use the UPGRADE CDROM media itself to provide such  if it would allow the installation which it does.  Again, the issue could be resolved if Adobe Customer Service intervened like they did in the past which they should despite end of life product support because the original media that I spent considerable money paying for apparently cannot be upgraded as is per above.

[kglad]

there's no longer support for older adobe versions.  even cc versions more than 2 versions old aren't supported.  so, what occurred in the past, is not relevant.

undo what you've done and copy the cs6 installation files to a hard drive directory.  right click the installer and run as administrator.

[davids16574943]

I removed the noted back-up Adobe folders.  Then created two folders C:\Adobe-CS5-Upgrade adn C:\Adobe-CS6-Upgrade into which I copied all the CDROM upgrade folders.  Then from the CS6 folder, attempted to run the AutoPlay.exe file.  That began but never continued beyond the Installation tab ...Photoshop selection.  Quit that then from the Photoshop folder ran setup.exe.  That looked for previous installations but found none because the two folders I added were not installations.  

Have been PM by Adobe Customer Care that I expect will contact me.

[kglad]

that pm is almost certainly a scammer.  BEWARE!

did you run those exe's as administrator?

[davids16574943]

Yes.

[kglad]

restart your computer 

check task manager

any adobe processes?

[davids16574943]

Thanks kglad for your continued assistance.  I rebuilt the two folders with the contents of the CS5 and CS6 installation CDROMs.  Then SHUTDOWN.  Waited 30 seconds and then powered back up.  Brought up the task manager and no adobe processes even listed. Will wait this time for your input before proceeding.

[kglad]

right click autoplay.exe

click run as administrator 

[davids16574943]

From the CS6 folder on my C: drive ran Adobe Autorun. That reached the same stuck location as before that has 3 Adobe app selections. I selected the Adobe Photoshop 6.0 button that as before began to run and then activity stopped. The Task Manager shows overall system single digit CPU activity.  Adobe Autorun (32 bit)... Status (blank) CPU 0% Memory 2.6MB Disk 0%.

[kglad]

copy and paste here a screenshot(s) of what you see after running the exe as administrator.

[davids16574943]

OK. After starting autoplay.exe the following 3 screens appeared in sequence.

On the first I selected the Yes button.

On the second selected the Next button.

On the third, Installation was already selected. I then selected Adobe Photoshop 6.0. And that then began which showed as a Task Manager process that apparently stops per my above post.