How do I activate Photoshop CS?

[Benhut1]

A couple days ago I bought Photoshop CS on eBay (it's a legit copy with original disk), and it just arrived today. So I have installed it, but now I'm at the point where I need to activate it. How do I activate it? I tried online activation but it gave me an error and said the activation server was offline. As far as I knew, only the activation server for Photoshop CS2 went offline (which is why the activation-free version was made available), and the activation server for Photoshop CS continued to run. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. It seems that the activation server for Photoshop CS is offline too. Can an Adobe employee here tell me if it's still possible to activate? Is there a free activation "authorization code" that you can give me, similar to the way that Photoshop CS2 was made free? I assume you wouldn't want to make this code public, so you can send it to my email address instead. My email address is <email address removed>

[gener7]

CS and CS2 both had the activation servers retired at the same time, and the CS2 non-activation version was free for those owners.

I don't know who told you the CS activation servers were still online.

The activation free CS2 version download was recently taken offline after being up for a few years.

Contact Customer Care and see if they will provide the CS2 link. Download older versions of Adobe apps

[Benhut1]

I already tried that (installing CS2) from the free downloads back when it was available online. I uninstalled it when I realized it had a bug in it. So I ended up trying to find a copy of original CS, which is quite rare to get a copy now. I got lucky the other day when I found it on eBay, so I bought it. I am running it now without an activation (for the 30day period) and discovered it doesn't have the bug. It also has the same interface I'm used to from Photoshop 7 (I've previously used my dad's copy of Photoshop 7 years ago on his computer for when I needed to edit pictures). CS2 also has a completely new interface I don't like. So that is another reason I chose CS instead of CS2 or newer. And I bought CS rather than 7 on eBay because it is newer and I believe it has a certain feature that 7 doesn't have. While newer versions of CSx (such as CS2 or CS6) have features that CS doesn't, they don't have additional features that I would find useful for how I would use Photoshop. CS is that "sweet spot" that's got all of the features I need (including those that are not present in Photoshop 7 and earlier) but doesn't have the bug introduced in CS2 (and hasn't ever been fixed, which I know because my dad now has upgraded to CS6 and I've tried it and it still has the same bug as in CS2).

So if I ever had to recommend any version of Photoshop to other hobbyists like me, I'd recommend Photoshop CS. So as you can see, that activation-free version of CS2 is just a no-go for me. I'm sticking with Photoshop CS. I would just like to have a way of activating it before the 30days runs out.

[Jeff Arola]

What is the bug in photoshop cs2?

Perhaps someone here knows a workaround or solution.

[Benhut1]

When selecting a palette entry to edit for indexed color mode, you can click on it with the tip (top left) of the arrow to select it, in all versions of Photoshop. That's fine. That's not the bug.

However the "info" box (the "info" tab in the tab strip that has navigator, info, and histogram tabs) that shows the current RGB and index values of that palette entry, when you hover the cursor over that entry, has a bug in CS2 and newer. In all Photoshop versions prior to CS2 you get the info by hovering tip (top left) of the cursor over the palette entry shows you the palette RGB and index. In CS2 and newer, you need to hover the middle-right point of the cursor over the palette entry to get its info. This creates a problem, when you want to edit that entry. If the middle-right point of the cursor shows the info, and the top-left point selects it for editing, you can easily end up in a situation where you see the info for one palette entry, but end up editing a different palette entry (the one above the one you are viewing the info on). Since I frequently use indexed color mode to edit sprites in games to create graphics mods for old game that actually use sprites, this bug is a BIG BUG for me.

So no. I'm not going to upgrade to a newer version of CS. And as for Adobe's latest Photoshop series, the CC series, that's also a no-go for me. The idea of needing to pay multiple times to rent software, instead of just paying once to BUY software, is not a reasonable payment method for me. I like the idea of a one-time transaction, so even if CC does have a fix for this bug (I don't know if it does), I'm not going to ever upgrade to CC.

However, if there's an Adobe employee here who's willing to help me activate my copy of Photoshop CS, that would be great.

[Jeff Arola]

I see what your saying in relation to the selecting colors in the Color Table dialog.

Still does not appear fixed in photoshop cc.

[gener7]

Asking an employee to activate software Adobe no long supports is a stretch.

If you must have CS, find an old G4 or G5 PPC Mac and get the Mac edition. That did not get the activation as far as I know, so you could install, add the serial and and run it on that.

That's the only honest way I know.

[Jeff Arola]

I believe that the windows versions of photoshop cs ce (central european) and  me (middle eastern) did not have activation as well, though i imagine they are even harder to find than just the plain cs.