Photoshop CS3 [CS3 is a dead, locked]

[johnmacg]

Photoshop CS3 suddenly stopped working on Windows 10, with the message: 'licensing for this product has stopped working'. The message also said I had to uninstall, then reinstall. I've now uninstalled and attempted to reinstall twice. Both times I've got a message saying it was only able to install one shared component, but couldn't install Photoshop CS3 plus other shared components. What's the solution?

If I manage to reinstall Photoshop, how will I activate it? I have the program registered for two computers, so that's all my activations used up. After Photoshop stopped working with the licensing message, I was unable to start it again to deactivate the licence before uninstalling. So I imagine that, as far as Adobe is concerned, I've used my activations up and can't do any more.

This is why no longer having access to a live Adobe technician is a big problem. I'm using Photoshop professionally and this is a serious business disruption for me.

The only thing I can think that could have precipitated the problem was that earlier on the same day Photoshop died, I had installed and ran Acronis True Image. Maybe doing that image triggered Photoshop into thinking I was trying to clone the installation to install on a third computer? But that would be crazy...

Photoshop was installed on my C: drive and I've wondered if installing it on my D: drive partition might work. But I prefer to have it on C: and haven't tried that solution.

(This is only part of my current Adobe problems - the other problem was that my other computer (Windows 7) that ran Photoshop and InDesign was getting really scratchy and I reinstalled Windows 7. Foolishly, I forgot to first deactivate my Adobe products. And now I can't reactivate them. I'll do a separate post for this though. But again - where is a live technician when you need one!)

[Bani Verma]

Johnmacg, probably the best thing to do right now is to follow the "Solution 8" given in the below help document, however it will require you to remove all Adobe software's and reinstall them.

Error: "Licensing has stopped working" | Windows

You may use the following link to download your products:  Other downloads

Click here to : Find your serial number

[johnmacg]

That is a big job and I won't be able to get to it straight away. This issue should not be marked as solved yet.

[johnmacg]

Hi Bani - I decided to start the 'Solution 8' job this morning, by uninstalling all my Adobe programs. But I have a problem you may be able to help me with. Before uninstalling InDesign 5.5, I tried to deactivate it, so that I can reactivate it after it is reinstalled later. Otherwise the Adobe system will believe I already have two installations of InDesign and refuse to activate what it sees as a third installation. Unfortunately, I can't deactivate it because the deactivation menu item is greyed out.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Johnmacg if you exceed the amount of allowable activations for Creative Suite 5.5 you are welcome to contact our support team directly at Contact Customer Care​.  You can find further details regarding the activation process at Activate and deactivate Adobe products .

The Deactivate option may be grayed out for a variety of reasons.  I would continue with the uninstall process as Bani suggested.

[johnmacg]

As I said earlier this month, uninstalling all my Adobe apps is a big and disruptive job - we're talking about my main production machine. I haven't had a chance to do it yet. This issue should not be marked as solved yet.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Thanks for the update Johnmacg.  If you have any questions at all, or experience any additional errors, you are welcome to update this discussion.

Please make sure you complete solution 8 as damaged licensing files or improper permissions may only be resolved by completely removing all Adobe software utilizing our licensing and activation technology.