Runtime Error installing InDesign CS5

Report · Mar 02, 2022

When trying to install InDesign in CS5 Design Premium I get to about 4 percent (installing JRE) on a Windows 11 Lenovo Intel i7 laptop and receive the following message:

Runtime Error!

Program:

C:\users\(myusername)\AppData\Local\Adobe\OODB\PDApp\DWA\Setup.exe

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.

I've searched for answers. I contacted support, in which the first agent transferred me to a second agent who told me "no free support" then ended the conversation.

My laptop needed to be replaced, so I'm trying to install on a new business laptop. Photoshop and Illustrator installed just fine if I didn't try to install ID.

HELP!

Report · Mar 03, 2022

You may be able to get CS5 to work by running th einstaller in Compatibility Mode for Windows 7, if that's avaialble, but there is no guarantee, and unfortunately there is no support available other than the experience of other users who have managed to do it, if any.

There are quite a few of us who have successfully installed CS6 on Win 10, and I suspect on Win 11 as well, but I don't know for sure that anyone is running CS5 that way. There may well also be problems with activation if you are able to finish the install.

Another possibility is to install a Windows 7 virtual machine (you will need a Win7 OS installer disk as well as a downloadable virtual machine), but I would say that is a last resort.

Report · Mar 03, 2022

So -- a decade problem solving in software / internet industry around a quarter century ago paid off. Tried an old trick -- created a new user with Admin privilages and tried the installer, and it worked.

CS5 works fine...on my Win 11 laptop. (As does Acrobat Pro 9.)

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Glad to know it's working.

And you know you ALWAYS need to use an admin account to install software....

Report · Mar 03, 2022

@Sam23411198825r wrote:

CS5 works fine...on my Win 11 laptop. (As does Acrobat Pro 9.)

Be aware, though, that support for Adobe Reader 9.x and Adobe Acrobat 9.x ended on June 26 2013 and it no longer gets security updates, leaving your system vulnerable.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/end-support-acrobat-8-reader.html

Jane

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Nor are there any bug-fix updates available for the other CS5 apps on Adobe's servers...

Report · Mar 03, 2022

I'm surprised the activation servers are still up.

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Bob,

Most software companies when ending support simply check for correctness of the SN algorithm, or at least send a valid-ping back. By law, if the software is sold with a permanent license, the software cannot be rendered useless. Part of the deal. I can still install 25 year old software from Microsoft, as well and activate it.

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Well that's not how it works with Adobe. Just ask any CS2-CS4 user. Those activation servers are shut down and any attempt to activate the software on a new install will fail.

Feel free to sue them if you think you have a case.

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Jane,

I worked for a major security software firm. If you think security updates for Acrobat are even remotely a high value against hacking, you do not know much about security. 😉 FYI -- computer hardware and most major software ships with viruses and hacks pre-installed, because hackers funded by foreign agents have already hacked systems used by software companies and hardware companies to create products.

I just need to make and edit pdfs. Want to do it without having to pay annually, since I already own the software. Acrobat 9 and CS5 do what I need them to do, so there's no value in upgrading. I'm more likely to die in a car crash than get hacked through those applications. #playingtheodds

Report · Mar 03, 2022

@Sam23411198825r wrote:

since I already own the software.

Fair enough, Sam, but it does need to be said that what you own is not the software, but a license to use it. 😊

https://www.allbusiness.com/the-difference-between-buying-and-licensing-software-928-1.html

Jane

Report · Mar 03, 2022

Indeed and spot-on, Jane. I was actually just teaching this concept to a class of high school seniors in the IB Theory of Knowledge (on the topic of copyright when one student claimed nobody should own a copyright in a very Von Dutch type of way.) The colloquial "own the software" implies the legal "licensed use in accordance with contractual terms and conditions" with ownership of the physical media on which it is stored, rather than the source code or other intellectual property... just as "owning a Honda Civic" implies ownership of the certificate of title for that individual unit of functioning component parts in accordance with federal and state laws, rather than the rights to reproduce the protected intellectual property it represents. In the case of Acrobat 9 and CS5, the license is perpetual and the media was originally a CD. The lines are much clearer and easier to enforce in the modern software-as-a-service paradigm rather in the era of deliverable media software products. #formersoftwareproductlinedirectorspeak #retirementismorefun

But most importantly...it all works like I need.