Activating Illustrator CS3 ?

[askarv]

Had bought CS3 in January 2008.  Old installation is no longer available due to failure of the Windows XP computer.  Have new computer with operating system.  Installed the CS3 illustrator.  Tried all possible methods to activate the program which has resulted in disappointment failure.  Have 20 days left to activate Illustrator CS3.  Need help to get it activated. Arvind Saklikar

[Bill Silbert]

If your computer is new and is running Windows 10 then you should know that Illustrator CS3 is not supported on Windows 10. You will need to create a Creative Cloud account in order use Illustrator.

[Jacob Bugge]

askarv,

You may try this,

https://www.howtogeek.com/228689/how-to-make-old-programs-work-on-windows-10/

Failing that, you may try this repetitive procedure, once a month, but it may be too tiresome,

http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-add-an-XP-Mode-Virtual-Machine-to-Windows-10-or-8-using-Hy...

[Monika Gause]

To activate the software, try this:

Activation or connection error when starting CS3 or Acrobat 8

That won't solve your compatibility issues.

In order to run old applications, keep an old system.

[nicolasc36581630]

Hi; I'm having the same issue, I used my Illustrator CS3 program perfectly with my new laptop, that uses Windows 10, when suddenly I began to receive a notice saying that I had to register my program again if I wanted to continue using it. When I tried to register it, I had issues connecting to the internet. I tried the phone activation service, but it turned out phone activation is no longer supported. Apparently, now I need an authorization code. I recently tried the live chat support, but the representative suggested me to try this.

I really want to save my program, I'm not ready to let it go. All I need is the authorization code, but since phone activation is no longer supported, I wonder how I can get it so I can continue using my program. Can anyone help me solve this issue? Any help will be appreciated.

[Monika Gause]

Did you try the solution in here

Activation or connection error when starting CS3 or Acrobat 8

[markz82975793]

Monika, your proposed solution is worthless . . on Windows 10!  It just doesn't work because Adobe does not allow you to enter a new serial number or activation code, once you download their CS3 version.  Adobe has made it impossible to use CS3 on Windows 10.

[Monika Gause]

markz82975793  schrieb

Monika, your proposed solution is worthless . . on Windows 10! 

You probably read the very first answer by Bill?

You might have stopped reading just there.

Install an old system and then you can run old software. And please mind that people who are not marked as "Staff" on this forum are not staff. And if you want to complain to somebody: complain to Microsoft that they made Windows 10 so that it won't work with your historic software.

[markz82975793 · Accepted solution]

Monika, as it turns out, I got it to work.  The secret lies in removing the cached licensing database file (cache.db) after removing the Adobe files from your PC. The path is "\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\".

By deleting that file, and downloading & installing the Adobe CS3 application, I can now run Creative Suite CS3 on my Windows 10 PC.

[Jacob Bugge]

Thank you for sharing, Mark.

This is a very important matter, and it may help/rescue many with CS versions.

May I ask you whether you had it running earlier and then upgraded the OS, or whether you had a failed installation on a new PC with Windows 10 first?

[markz82975793]

I had the CS3 suite originally installed on a Windows XP machine. When I installed the same CS3 disks on a new Windows 10 computer, it ran fine for about a year, getting the "temporary activation" popup which let me log in ~5 times, so I would tend to keep logged on to the Photoshop CS3 application. When I finally got the "temporary activation expired" popup, I tried everything and got as frustrated as everyone else.

Finally, yesterday I decided to experiment and used a combination of the following:

• Activation or connection error when starting CS3 or Acrobat 8
• Resolve "temporary activation expired" error for CS3 and Acrobat 8
• Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems

The real secret, though, lies in removing the cached licensing database file (cache.db). This is explained in the Resolve "temporary activation expired" error for CS3 and Acrobat 8  section.  It resolved the conflict, and subsequently worked for me. 

All of the CS3 applications that I need (Photoshop, Illustrator, & Dreamweaver) now work under Windows 10.

Good luck. - Mark

[Bill Silbert]

I'm glad that you are currently able to use your CS3 applications again. However, I feel I must caution you about what is happening with Windows 10. Microsoft has announced that going forward their operating system will always be known as Windows 10 even though at some point with all of the automatic updates they issue it will no longer resemble the operating system as it was first released. For most users Windows 10 will automatically update as there is no official way to stop that updating. There are some workarounds out there on the web which more savvy users may be able to get ahold of but for the average person they will get what Microsoft wants them to have. For users of an old, unsupported version of the Adobe programs like CS3 this means that at any time the solution that you've found to keep CS3 running may no longer work. Microsoft and Apple do not make allowances for old programs when they update their operating systems. If the use of the Adobe programs is work critical for you then this all should be kept in mind.

[Jacob Bugge]

Thank you very much for sharing, Mark.

[markz82975793]

Happy to help, Jacob.  CS3 may not work on my Windows 10 machine forever, but it does work for me now, and I'm not subjected to an Adobe CC subscription.  For everything I need to do, CS3 works just fine.  Yay!

[desiree27623216sy2f]

Thanks, Mark. I just purchased a copy of Illustrator CS3 because I can't find my CS5 version. I assumed a valid and numbered product would work on my Win7 system. I'll give your suggestion a try. Apparently, I can't lose since after 30 days, my Illust. CS3 won't work. I'm not interested in perpetual updates nor being victimized by legal shenanigans. If Adobe doesn't want to support their older software, that's fine by me. But the only reason to proactively block the use of their older software and literally force poor users to upgrade is pure greed, as far as I can see.

I used to be proud to use Adobe products, back in the day. There's no reason to be proud any longer.

[Monika Gause]

Before buying that old copy, you could have researched if it is still supported. It's no secreet that that version is no longer supported.

You should also discuss this issue with the seller of that package. They should have told you that the version can no longer be activated.