Macromedia Dreamweaver 8

[webmaster698]

Hello,

I have ha Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 now since my Windows XP days.  When I upgraded my computer to Windows 7, it still worked great, with just as much functionality.  I even put in on my Windows 10 laptop, and still it worked just as good, again with no diminished functionality.  A few days ago, Macromedia Dreamweaver, for some reason stopped working on my Windows 7 machine.  Every time I open it, I get : Please reinstall software. I can't figure this out.  I reinstalled the software, I get the same error message.  To make things more bizarre, my Windows 10 machine still runs Macromedia Dreamweaver with no problems.

Does anyone know of a fix? I don't want to just throw away the CD.

[Jon Fritz]

Have you tried different W7 Compatibility Modes yet?

Years ago, others had gotten it to work using the XP SP2 Compatibility Mode.

Dreamweaver 8 and Windows 7

[webmaster698]

I don't think I have an SP2 disk.

How do you do it, assuming II have the disk?

Can you still use Windows 10?

[Jon Fritz]

I'm sorry, I didn't explain what Compatibility Modes are.

When installing on Windows 7, you have the ability to use different Compatibility Modes (built into the OS itself) that essentially emulate features of older versions of the OS when you run a given program. It allows us to run ancient software in more modern OSs by faking the older OS the program was built for.

XP Service Pack 2 is one of those modes.

Do a quick Google search on "Compatibility Modes Windows 7" to get the info on how to enable them when installing DW8.

Your W10 machine is likely already doing the same thing.

[webmaster698]

Yes, I have tried different compatibility modes.

[webmaster698]

Ok, I tried running several different compatibility modes.

Any ideas if that doesn't work?

[webmaster698]

It seems to have a problem with activation?

[Jon Fritz · Accepted solution]

If you owned CS2 (which DW8 became part of after Adobe took over Macromedia), you can download and install an offline-activation version of it, then use Adobe's offline activation code (included in the download process) to get it running: "Activation server unavailable" error in Adobe CS2, Acrobat 7, and Audition 3

Aside from that, the program is long out of its support window.

You might also look into using Brackets, it's a free coding tool:  Brackets

EDIT: I guess DW wasn't included in the downloadable version.

[Nancy OShea]

Jon Fritz II​,

See this related discussion.

Re: Macromedia Studio 8 ACTIVATION

[Nancy OShea]

Unfortunately, the Activation Servers for CS2 were taken off line several years ago.  And Dreamweaver 8 was not included in the CS2 suite but came out later as a CS2.3 release.  Unfortunately, it was never included in the non-activation version.  So the long & short of it is this:  you can no longer activate legacy Macromedia DW8.  

If you can work with code, download Brackets (it's free).

Brackets - A modern, open source code editor that understands web design.

Otherwise, a Creative Cloud plan is the only way to get a modern Dreamweaver that will work with modern operating systems.

Creative Cloud pricing and membership plans | Adobe Creative Cloud

Nancy