CS5 apps, including InDesign, have stopped responding

[wallmg35]

Hi. The other day, all my CS5 apps were working fine. I had a project open in InDesign that was missing some fonts, so I installed the fonts and tried to restart InDesign to make the fonts register, and the app would no longer open. When I click on the app icons, I get a quick spinning wheel, then nothing happens. Task manager shows no trace of the app being open. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software, and at first, just attempting to uninstall gave me a Runtime Error. Today, I was able to reinstall the software, but the apps are still not responding. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[BobLevine]

I will point out the obvious...CS5 is 15 year old software. You've given us nothing in the way of system specifications but I'm going to guess you're running this software on an unsupported newer operating system

As for installing/uninstalling you're likely to run into an activation issue at some point here. Unfortunately, I can't offer you a whole lot of hope since you say nothing in the suite is working. That indicates some kind of very serious issue. Your time with this software may well be up.

[wallmg35]

Hi. I understand it's old. I'm running it on Windows 11, and it has been working fine up until Friday, when I simply installed some fonts and tried reopening InDesign. I tried opening Photoshop and Illustrator as well, and they won't open. These same apps open fine on my laptop, also running Windows 11. There have been no Windows updates Friday that could have caused this, but I'm wondering if reinstalling Windows might help? Or if something simpler like deleting preferences might work. Just not sure how to do that without being able to open the apps.

[BobLevine]

Have you tried running the apps in compatibility mode? Navigate to the EXE file and right click. Choose properties and compatibility.

You could also try running it as an adminstrator.

[wallmg35]

Neither of those options worked. I tried compatibility mode for Windows 7, XP/ME and 95.

[Peter Spier]

How badly do you need those fonts?
Have you tried running System Restore to go back to when it did work? I suspect, as Bob has pointed out, that uninstalling anything and trying to reinstal CS5 is going to be a disaster with the activation servers offline.

[wallmg35]

Shouldn't be the fonts. They are just Google fonts, and they work fine with the same software on my laptop. Unfortunately, there were no restore points saved on my system. I was installing some other software while working in InDesign, so maybe something with that other software corrupted my CS5 apps? Just don't know how to get it back working again. 

How badly do you need those fonts?
Have you tried running System Restore to go back to when it did work? I suspect, as Bob has pointed out, that uninstalling anything and trying to reinstal CS5 is going to be a disaster with the activation servers offline.

By @Peter Spier