how do i install cs5 on mac

[Alexander28538667s8d1]

basically i have an install disc for CS5 design premium but it only has the .exe and there is no .app file. is there somewhere i can download it from

[D Fosse]

If it's CS5, and not CS5.5 - dot five - the question is moot. It can't be activated, the servers have been shut down.

In any case it sounds like a Windows installer which wouldn't work on a Mac. If there is a serial number there, it's a Windows serial number that wouldn't work on Mac. Creative Suite licenses were platform specific (unlike CC which is cross-platform).

[Alexander28538667s8d1]

I installed it fine on Windows, activated and all, and the CD comes with a macos key.

[davescm]

@D Fosse We recently had it confirmed by Adobe staff that CS5 can still be activated. There were a couple of conflicting help pages which led to this confusion. They are getting those changed.

@Alexander28538667s8d1 If you registered your software against your Adobe account then you may be able to download it : https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/download-install/kb/downloaded-older-app.html

Dave

[D Fosse]

@davescm 

OK, but I soon give up trying to keep on top of this... 🙂

[davescm]

@D Fosse That's why I went to the horse's mouth as it were.  It was explained that CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 all use the same activation technology which is why they can all still be activated. Some errors had crept into the online help info which led to the CS5.5 and CS6 only statements.
Dave

Dave

[gator soup]

activation confusion continues November 2025

I discovered a Photoshop Extended 5.0 (ps 12) license in my adobe products page -- serial and download

I ran the Photoshop_12_LS1.dmg installer on a 2011 macmini running Snow Leopard 10.6.8

I discovered my ps5 was an upgrade that needed a previous serial

I dug up my ps4 extended serial and got to the Adobe ID 

the freshly downloaded installer from my products page accepted both serials

my verified Adobe ID step erred: "Network error. Please Try again later."

I clicked SKIP THIS STEP -- and the app installed and opened like it was activated

I downloaded and installed the mac 12.0.4 and 12.0.5 updaters off Adobe site

rebooting and reopening PS, waiting 5+minutes still working...

wait and see if it continues working or in tryout or what happens...

good current information is hard to come by...

[ExUSA]

Adobe has changed the activation process and has been turning off older servers, plus they won't reset activation counts now. So more and more people are unable to use old versions of the CS products. If you look in the Download and Install forum you'll see lots of posts regarding this issue.

[gator soup]

ExUSA

Advocate ,

4 hours ago

 LATEST

>> Adobe has changed the activation process

Are you saying the activation process I just outlined above is no longer valid, but it may be still possible to activate PS 5 (ps12) with a current newer activation process? (if I have a seat available, I believe I do) what might that new process be?

I downloaded the current Download file off Adobe today, I got my serials today off my Adobe Products page

I barrelled through installer steps 1-2 (installer accepted my serials), but it choked on my Adobe ID with a network error -- that error may mean different things to different people -- it suggests my Adobe ID is wrong but I just signed in with it

I posted here because a few months ago knowledgable people were saying cs5 PS extended still Activated -- I don't know anything about the "the Download and Install forum" -- google hits this thread I can tell you

[Jeff Arola · Accepted solution]

On the Mac side the last operating system Photoshop CS5 or any CS5 Applications will work on is macOS Mojave 10.14 because of Apple removing the ability for later Mac operating systems to run 32 bit applications.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/103076

Even though Photoshop CS5 and other CS5 applications are 64 bit, some of the included components like the installer are 32 bit.

You didn't say what model and year Mac you have, but if it's anything within the last several years then macOS Mojave won't run on those systems.

[Alexander28538667s8d1]

Oh, so I won't be able to run it because I have a newer Mac... thanks for the answer though.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Oh, so I won't be able to run it because I have a newer Mac... thanks for the answer though.

By @Alexander28538667s8d1

As I remember it, CS4 and CS5 were a nightmare because the 32 bit OS could only use les than 3.5GB of RAM (Windows — I don't know how OSX faired).  If you tried allocating all 3.5GB to Photoshop, the OS would run poorly. You couldn't print as there was RAM for print spooling, and third party plugins wouldn't barely work.  

Windows had its Page file, and Photoshop had Scratch space, but we were using dog slow HDDs at that time that could manage less than 100MB/s.  The upper chart below is the Samsung 990PRO and currently the fastest M.2 NVMe drive on Toms Hardware.  Photoshop CS4 was released in 2008.  I think HDDs were still running at 5400rpm at that time! The second chart is a Seagate Momentus (which I'd never heard of) which Google told me was from the same year.   The 990 Pro is > 180 time faster than the HDD and that's going to be reflected in how fast Photoshop uses its Scratch files.

As I remember it, Photoshop was not a great user experience at that time.  CS6 on a 64 bit OS was a breath of fresh air.  You'd have to be a masochist to put up with CS4 now.