Problems with activation Adobe Design Standard CS 5.5

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
October 15, 2025
2 replies
366 views

I bought new pc, I tried to make new installation of Adobe Design Standard CS 5.5. During installation i type serial number, which is accepted and click next. After a moment it asks me to log in into my adobe account, It cannot communicate with server, and informs me about "network error", I skip this step and installing. After installation and launching any program I get message that key is incorrect. Program was deactivated on previous machine. What to do?

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

CS5.5 was released in 2011 and built to run on Win XP, which no longer exists. CS5 hasn't been updated since its release date.

As of yesterday, Windows 10 is End of Life.

https://support.microsoft.com/windows/windows-10-support-ends-on-october-14-2025-2ca8b313-1946-43d3-b55c-2b95b107f281

This might be a good opportunity to replace your outdated products with supported ones.

MODERN OPTIONS:
==============
FREE Acrobat Reader
https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pdf-reader.html

FREE Online PDF Editor
https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/pdf-editor.html\

Paid Acrobat (Standard, Pro or Studio)
https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pricing/compare-versions.html

Photoshop Elements (3 year license, no subscription needed).
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

Creative Cloud Annual Photography plan.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

Creative Cloud Bundles & Single Apps for mobile, web & desktops
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html

Hope that helps.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

M

Michael-555Author

Participating Frequently

There are no technical conditions or reasons why Adobe Indesign Standard 5.5 should not run on Windows 11. I have it installed on my previous PC with Windows 10 Pro and it runs perfect. What makes Adobe Indesign Standard 5.5 unsupported? Only activation servers which were turned off. That's not a reason to abandon the license. I can keep my old PC only for this software. I need to use it just few times in year so subscription model is not a solution for me.

kglad

Community Expert

Thank you for your golden advices. I will feel free to use Design Standard 5.5 on windows 10.

there's been no change to the deactivation servers. yesterday it was confirmed they're still working as usual and it was confirmed that offline activation is working as usual. ie, did you try using a browser after disconnecting from the internet?

kglad

Community Expert

you can try offline activation:

Launch the product.
At the Serial Number Validation screen, click Having Trouble Connecting To The Internet.
Click Offline Activation and click Generate a Response Code.
Write down the Request Code.
Switch to an online computer and navigate to www.adobe.com/go/getactivated.
Click Offline Activation.
Sign in with your Adobe ID.
Enter your Request code and click Generate.
Write down the Response code.
Switch back to the offline computer.
Enter the Response Code and click Activate.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/serial-number-validation-launching-cs6.html