Photoshop Elements 2021 does not display anything

[jo5E8E]

Just purchased and installed Elements 2021 on my HP laptop running Windows 10. Have never installed Elements before on this machine. I do have Photoshop CC 2018 and Acrobat DC installed and they work fine. When I attempt to launch Elements 2021, nothing displays at all. Task Manager shows it is running (and using 25 - 30 % of the CPU) but nothing at all is displayed on the screen. Nothing. No error messages or diaplogs of any kind.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing to no avail. Not sure what to do next. Posting here in hopes of finding a solution, before I request my money back from BestBuy. Does anyone have any idea what I can try to get this software running? I am a Windows configuration support person, so I am familiar with Windows and installing/uninstalling software, but this one is really stumping me.

Thanks.

Ric Olson

[Greg_S.]

Are you talking about the Home Screen, the Editor or the Organizer (or all three)?  If you are talking about the Editor, it's possible that the log in (and licensing screen) are buried and waiting your response.  Try an Alt-tab to see if the hidden screen appears.

Also, try launching from the exe files rather than the desktop icons, if that is what you have been doing.

Also take at a look at this Help article.

[jo5E8E]

In my initial post, I was referring to none of the screens appearing. So there was nothing displayed for me to click on, nor any error message dialogs. I am quite certain they were not hidden under other application screens. Since my last post, i created a new profile on my Windows 10 laptop, and tried running Elements from that profile. It did display the Home screen and I thought I finally had it working. So I chose Photo Editor (since that is the one I installed) and it had me login with my Adobe ID then (after verifying my login) I clicked the option to activate the software. I entered the serial number I received in my download instructions, then entered the verification code which was sent to my email and clicked Verify Code. At that point, it came back with the message to "Please connect to the internet and try again."

So, I am connected to the internet, and even though I knew that, I checked again and yep, I am connected. Otherwise, I would not have received the email with the verification code. Just to be sure my Norton AV was not blocking anything, i disabled the firewall. Tried verifying again and same message. In fact, I have tried it many times, each with the same result. The definition of insanity, right? Expecting different results...

I simply don't understand why this software install and activation is causing so many issues. I have installed a lot of software over the years and never had this much trouble. Okay, maybe in a few cases I have, but not very often. Any ideas why the verification process would give me the "no internet" error, when in fact I am connected to the internet? Is there some other way I can activate this software online? I would really like to get this working.

Thanks.

Ric Olson

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

@jo5E8E 

I simply don't understand why this software install and activation is causing so many issues. I have installed a lot of software over the years and never had this much trouble. Okay, maybe in a few cases I have, but not very often. Any ideas why the verification process would give me the "no internet" error, when in fact I am connected to the internet?

The old answer is that you are connected to Internet, but an external program on your computer has blacklisted Adobe site.

I remember the solution was to remove Adobe site from the "host" file in Windows. Sorry, I don't know the details but I hope that other users can guide you.

The core of the issue is that we are more and more attacked by so many malwares that all antivirus and safety softwares have to be very restrictive. I am finding myself that I have many more issues with the 'protections' from antivirus, malware protection and Operating Systems protection than with real threats. Be prepared to more such issues!

[Greg_S.]

I have seen other users with the no internet connection message, but don't recall any useful solution.  I suggest you contact Adobe support by starting a chat at Adobe.com and clicking the blue Contact Us button under the Support menu. 

[jo5E8E]

So that is what I did - contacted Adobe Support and chatted with Rupa. We went through uninstalling and re-installing the software to no avail. Then, he suggested i look at the hosts file. And when I did, I found a couple of entries in there that were preventing the activation of the software. As soon as i removed those entries, it activated just fine. I am just a bit embarrased that I did not think of that on my own, but i have achieved activation of the software which was my main goal. In this case, talking to the helpline worked.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my posts.

Ric Olson