CS3 - Still getting Activation Error Message with new Installer

[Guest]

How to remove the cache from the Windows 10 installation? I deleted the folders /users/<user name>/appdata/adobe/roaming and /users/<user name>/appdata/adobe/local, while performing whole bunch of steps laid down in the procedure. Any other location? I tried three times uninstalling completely and reinstalling, but result is the same.

Thank you very much.

[Bani Verma]

Hi Niratul,

You need to completely remove Adobe CS3 from your machine first, use the cleaner tool to do so Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems.

After this follow the troubleshooting shared in the following thread:

Downloaded the new version of Creative Suite 3 and it does not work

Note: Deleting Cache.db file will corrupt the licensing of all Adobe products so please make sure there are no other Adobe products installed before deleting it.

Let us know if this helps.

[Guest]

Hi Bani,

Sorry, I was not clear enough. I already did all possible suggestions in this post in this forum and others, I came across. Anyway, I list them below.

1. Uninstalled Creative Suite 3 by Uninstall in "Apps and features".

2. Deleted the entire folders C:\users\<user name>\appdata\adobe\roaming and C:\users\<user name>\appdata\adobe\local.

3. Deleted folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe completely.

4. Downloaded and executed CC Cleaner tool from following link and followed the steps mentioned in it.

Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems

5. Also tried to clean using the tools CS3Clean.exe and CleanUpRMDIR.exe from WinCS3Clean. But that seems to be old, did not work on Windows 10.

6. Restarted the PC.

7. Installed the CS3 from ADBESTDSCS3_ESD1_WWE.exe downloaded from Adobe site.

8. When ran Adobe Photoshop, I see the same Reactivation error.

Did I miss anything?

Thanks for your help!

[Bani Verma]

Just to confirm you have performed all the steps shared by kglad​ in the following thread Downloaded the new version of Creative Suite 3 and it does not work .

[neptune58]

This is the exact same issue Im having with my CS3. Nothing seems to work. I feel as if there is no choice but to buy another program that will work in place of DW CS3. I am looking at other open source products as there has not been any resolution for fixing this sadly.

I have noticed that after I tried removing DW from Add/Remove programs it is still listed there. However there is no DW icon, and when I try to select it and remove it I get an error message.

Can someone please give us the step by step (in details) how to properly remove DWCS3 from Win-10, and what are the other steps. Im willing to give this one more try to see if I can get it working and then I feel I just need to move on to using another Application. I've spend most of this week trying to get this to work. No one at Adobe has ever contacted me and I have a website that needs to be maintained.

[Guest]

@neptune58,

Try this last thing, in addition to the steps mentioned in my above post.

Delete the entire folder under C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe

Then try. It worked for me!

[neptune58]

thank you for your help. As I thought that didn't work either. That was my last try. I have been trying to fix this all week and this has been a total waste of my time as I have a website to work on. I'm very disappointed with Adobe. It makes me not want to ever purchase any of their products again. I also feel this is on purpose and a money grab for them to get people to purchase their upgrades. Why else would they care if I use a 10 year old product as long as it works for me?

Thanks to everyone who tried to help.