Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Windows 7 (64bit)

Ever since the Windows 7 RC came out I’ve been testing it at work, and to my great surprise most of the software I run on a daily basis just works. Netbeans, Tortoise, WAMP, they all work as expected. I had not, however, even dared to try Adobe Creative Suite 2 as I’ve heard people complaining about lousy compatibility even under Vista. It all changed today!

I’ve spent the last month with Photoshop/Illustrator only available on my tiny Macbook Air, and I grew tired of it eventually. Since I felt really lucky today I decided to go be an idiot and try to get CS2 up and running in Windows 7 :-)

During the setup my first problem occured – invalid path name. I’m running Windows 7 64bit and it automatically puts 32bit applications in the Programfiles (x86) folder. The CS2 setup wasn’t too happy about it so I changed it to the regular path, C:\Programfiles. CS2 installed as expected – awesome I thought!

I expected Photoshop to keep nagging me about registration over and over again until I ran it as administrator, similar to the problem under Vista. But nay, Photoshop gave me a short error about “user name, organization, or serial number is missing or invalid” meaning it had to terminate without me painting a single pixel. After some research I found that this was a problem that would occur under 64bit versions of Windows XP as well – and the solution for Windows XP 64bit users worked for me!

According to Adobe, you have to get your Creative Suite installation into that x86 directory, and here’s how to do it:

Uninstall Creative Suite completely, when installing again use C:\Progra~2\Adobe as your installation path instead of the one suggested. If your “Next” button is disabled after pasting it, try clicking “Browse” then “Cancel” and it should be reenabled.

I’d also like to point out that I ran my setup as Administrator (browsed to the DVD drive then right clicked setup.exe and chose (“Run as Administrator”) the second time just to be sure.

It worked out quite well actually, hooray!

| June 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Interesting, Site news, Technological, Tips and tricks |

117 Responses to “Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Windows 7 (64bit)”

  1. A>AM Says:

    Are you having difficulty with the blend function in Illustrator CS2. I am using Windows 7RC(32bit). I tried a blend spine between two objects that worked fine in WinXP. It now shows interleaved gradients of color and black horizontal lines. Same computer, same software and same graphics setups…different OS. I am running CS2 in WinXPSP3 compatability mode with themes turned off. Do you see this same problem?

  2. Cory Smith Says:

    hey wanted to say thanks for the info, it helped me save the day for a art gallary in Wichita K.S. when there system went down and I gave them my space pc (with windows 7) installed. you rock!!!!!

  3. janpjens Says:

    Always a pleasure helping out! :-)

  4. janpjens Says:

    Sorry for the late reply!

    I only use Photoshop on a daily basis – but I do touch Illustrator occasionally.
    Tried to blend two objects now and it seems I get the same result as you do, I’m afraid.

    Launching Illustrator CS2 causes W7 to change the color scheme to Basic (from Aero).
    This is probably due to Illustrator being quite old in CS2, and the Basic scheme is most likely
    applied because of compatibility reasons.

    I’ll be sure to post an update if I come across a solution that allows Illustrator CS2 to be run
    in full hardware mode / glitch free.

  5. Ryan M Says:

    First, thank you so much for this install guide, it saved me a ton!

    I was curious how or if you handled the Adobe PDF Printer install on your Win 7 64 Bit?
    It throws an error when I attempt to install it. From what I’ve read, it is an inherent problem on any 64 bit OS. Microsoft created a hotfix for it with Vista 64 Bit but I can’t use that update because the downloader says it doesn’t apply to my OS.
    An additional issue is Internet Explorer 8 on this OS doesn’t like to open PDF documents in the browser. You have to download it then open it using Acrobat.

  6. scottdot Says:

    @janpjens does this mean the color scheme is changed system wide, or just for the CS2 apps? I’m considering upgrading from XP on my production machine at work. Please advise.

  7. Wave Media Says:

    Your install instructions worked…. Thank You for providing such a valuable set of information.

    Now I can enjoy CS2 on windows 7…. It worked just as you said…

    THANK YOU!!!!

  8. Andre Says:

    Thanks a lot, had the same problem and your hint helped me to solve it.

  9. janpjens Says:

    It pretty much means the color scheme is changed system wide for the time the app is running. I believe upgrading to XP on a production machine should be safe, but be careful if you don’t have anything newer than Illustrator CS2 to rely on :)

  10. Bec Says:

    I could not get CS 2 to install on Vista 64bit or Windows 7 64bit. I finally tried installing the individual software one at a time into the above mentioned directory and it worked!

  11. PulpVision Says:

    Hello,

    Thanks for your information on how getting CS2 installed on a Win7 system :)
    However, I have a problem installing it…
    I have an upgrade from CS1 to CS2. Means that I have to insert my CS1 dvd at the beginning of the installation so it can actually run… The problem is that my DVD is not recognized…

    Have you, guys, had the problem ?

    Many thanks if anyone can answer :)

  12. Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) Says:

    Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) …

    Ever since the indows 7 RC came out I’ve been testing it at work, and to my great surprise m [...]…

  13. slgardiner Says:

    brilliant, thanks!

  14. Caroline Says:

    This also worked for my original CS1.1.1 purchased. Thanks for posting.

  15. Caroline Says:

    Caroline :
    This also worked for my original CS1.1.1 purchased when I was a student. Thanks for posting.

  16. Shelly Says:

    Thank you! You were much more helpful than Adobe. I had the exact same problem and your advice worked perfectly. Now I can proceed to enjoy Windows 7….

  17. Antagonist Says:

    Thanks for that awesome bit of info. Was worried that I’d have to move with the times and get CS4. Cheers.

  18. juan david Says:

    budy thank u so much, i just bought this new machine qith windows 7 and i had the same error.. i wanted to suicide my self.. but u save my day.. wherever u are!!! thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

  19. mike Says:

    I am a student, about 99.9% of my work revolves around Adobe programs. You have saved my LIFE. I wish you could give hugs over the internet… thanks so much!

    ps,
    maybe im an idiot but i tried to copy and paste the path… it didnt work. If it isnt working make sure you enter the path manually.

  20. John Says:

    You are a genius!

  21. Aaron Says:

    Thank you for guide on how to install CS2 in Windows 7. I was having problem installing CS2 so i took a short cut to see if your method work and i know have a few problems. I just installed photoshop and NOT the other suite of applications and now i can’t install the rest of the suite. (by the way photoshop worked just fine) i keep getting this message “Missing or invalid personalization information. Missing resources library.” I get this message when i try to uninstall and/or continue the installation process. My plan is to uninstall photoshop and start over again and do everything at once but windows 7 will not let me uninstall photoshop. How do i manually remove photoshop from my computer? i tried deleting the program and restarting but i still keep getting the same messages.

    Any help will be much appreciated

  22. Aaron Says:

    i got! i had to start up in safe mode and then i was able to uninstall photoshop!

    Thanks so again!

  23. GuenterFrank Says:

    oh thank you so mutch,
    i had the same problem and yor hint was helpful…. thank´s again…

  24. Anthony Says:

    It Worked!! But I haven’t figured out how to get the adobe PDF option in the print menu yet. Any answers?

  25. Vito Says:

    I’m also using CS2 with win7 x64 and installed it using your method.

    However, it didn’t seem to install the adobe printer, so I can’t print to PDF (it’s not in the printer list). Did you have the same problem? If so, how did you fix it (if you fixed it)? Does anybody know?

  26. Simon Radford Says:

    Thank you.
    This article was sent to me by a friend and coincidentally the very next email was from Adobe technical support with another solution to the problem.
    Their solution was to buy Creative Suite 4 because CS2 would not work with Windows7.

  27. J. Says:

    Thanks so much, you really saved the day!

  28. Javanut Says:

    Thank you very much for this fix!! Just got my new HP with Windows 7 and could not open photoshop till I found your fix. Thanks for posting!

  29. Dave Says:

    Ditto! I was pulling my hair out trying to get it to install. Thanks for saving what was left of it. :)

  30. AndyG Says:

    Totally amazing – thought I had £1000 worth of useless software – Adobe were utterly useless when I phoned them several times – they even re-serialised my software to try to get it to work, but with no success. Just using your new path worked perfectly. Greatly appreciated!

    Andy

  31. Paul S Says:

    You’re a Lifesaver! Thanks a million!

  32. Oz Says:

    Thank you very much. I’ve been trying to figure this one out for a couple weeks now. Now I have Photoshop working, but still need a way to fix Adobe 7 (as a printer). If I find the answer, I’ll come back to post it.

    Thanks again.

    Oz

  33. Uma Says:

    Thank you . . . this solution works . . .

  34. Rikke Andersen Says:

    Thank you-it is finally working!!

  35. Geoff Says:

    Wow. Thats an incredible help. And so simple! Other forums are giving so many other options, some even saying that CS2 is incompatible with Win7, but something so simple can make the world of difference!

  36. REH Says:

    Thank you! It took me 2 days to finally find your post and get it to work.

  37. Natasha G Says:

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! After unsuccessfully trying to install on my new laptop running Win 7, I called Adobe customer service and was told that my software was out of date, was no longer serviced, and would not run on Windows 7. Period. I was then told to purchase an upgrade for $800. I was devastated and crying. Sick to my stomach. Then I found your article. Thank you for saving me!

  38. krisintoronto Says:

    Thanks a lot!
    For all of you folks who need to uninstall Photoshop manually (I had the same problem…) here is the link. There are links to other Adobe programs there as well:
    http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/331/331405.html

  39. Maitreya7x13 Says:

    I can’t see my illustrator CS2 thumbnails in Windows 7. Tried the Aiicon.dll and psicon.dll files like before in Windows XP but still no thumbnail view. What went wrong?

  40. mike Says:

    in regards to the pdf print function, you can try to install a third party pdf printer. I tried bullzip which is free and compatible with win 7 64 bit. I haven’t had time to give a real test run but it was able to print a webpage. will update later on.
    yo thanks for the installation fix for cs2!!!!!!!!!

  41. Anonymous Says:

    use a thrid party pdf printer, there are loads of free ones available. i duno how good they are compared to the adobe on tho. thanks for the windows 7 fix!

  42. darnedslacks Says:

    Thank you so much for this post. It worked perfectly!

  43. Rob Says:

    Thanks so much! Life saver!

    I have a bit of an issue with the registration that repetitively comes up every time I open CS2. To clarify I registered the software and previously on Xp it gave me no problems but now this registration request is beginning to grow old on me. I was wondering if there isn’t anything I can do to sort out this bug.

    Thanks

  44. catnmouse Says:

    You are a godsend! I spent the entire day on the phone yesterday with Adobe Support because I kept getting an “invalid serial number” message and therefore couldn’t launch the software. I spoke with 7 different techs, each of whom offered little help. The last one finally told me that CS2 wouldn’t work in Windows 7. I stewed about it over night, then went on the net this morning to find a fix. Yours worked perfectly! Thank you so much.

  45. bigjuliefromchicago Says:

    Cool! Thanks for the fix.

  46. kcb Says:

    Yep, worked like a charm. Thanks so much for the info. Giddyup, my 64bit! Yeeeeah! My CS2 rides again!

  47. AVnCA Says:

    Awesome. I’m really glad this worked, ty.

  48. janpjens Says:

    Rob:

    I’d try to run the application nagging you (be it Photoshop, Illustrator or something else) about registration as administrator.
    If that doesn’t work you could go into the registry and grant your user full access to the registry path where CS2 registration info is stored.
    That should do the trick, not certain though since I haven’t encountered this problem myself.

    Let me know if you want me to post the registry path – and if the administrator solution works :-)

  49. laura Says:

    Hi I just wanted to say thanks so much for your help on installing PS2 it was such an easy solution. I called Adobe and they informed me that my software may not work with windows 7 and told me that my only options were to go online and find a solution myself or upgrade so needless to say I was really ticked with them when I found out how simple the solution was. Thanks again.

  50. C2S user Says:

    Thank you so much!!!! I bought a new computer when my HP crashed and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get Adobe C2S back on my computer. It kept giving me an error message about having a missing or invaild serial #. I followed what you said and it worked!!! Thanks so much. I was going to call Tech support in the morning. I am glad I found this posting!

  51. Kristie Says:

    Thanks for the install path!!!!

  52. Tom Says:

    you helped me out. I ran into the error message exactly like you did and started an innstallation-supprot-chat with the adode help-desk. The guy asked for a brief description of my problem. Also he wanted my serial-number and mail-adress. Then – after 3 Minutes of nothing – he wrote: “True, this is a valid CS2-serial. You will have to upgrade to CS4. No other solution here. Hope this helps.”

    You for sure can imagine the mood he kicked me into. I was so upset. IF he really had been working on my issue – my error-description alone would have been enough for a “Win7 ans CS2? No solution, that´s impossible”.

    ALL he did – I bet – was a decent check of my serial. That´s all.

    So I googled and found this post. Awesome. I went through the installation without any problem whatsoever.

    BUT: What about the adobe-problem-solution you mentioned and linked to? Adobve HAD the solution already. Rediculous! I´ll never ever will waste my time to talk to the Adobe personel. Hey, it had been an “installation-help-chat”! This guy has nothing else to do than servicing installation problems. And he never heard about that issue? Never read Adobe´s bulletins? Wow.

    Thanks again!

  53. Sparklemax Says:

    Thank you very much for your help. I was tearing my hair out and was ready to send my new PC with windows 7 back as I thought it would not run my CS2.

  54. Going Crazy Says:

    It worked! I have been going crazy trying to figure this out. Thank you so much! You have saved the day!

  55. Paul Says:

    Sweet, It worked!!!!

    I had the same bullshit with the support as Tom had.. What a bullocks support…

  56. kjmcclellan Says:

    Very helpful information. Anyone get the pdf printer to install with Acrobat?

  57. Emil Says:

    Okay, I got my CS2 installed on my hp Pavilion tx1000. I did a complete re-format and install of Windows 7 on my HD. Nothing but problems trying to install CS2 until your suggestions. BUT it won’t update! I keep getting the following error message – “No connection. Please check your internet settings and/or firewall. Waiting for connection.” Any ideas?

  58. Anonymous Says:

    Genius!
    I’m glad I didn’t try to call Adobe first. From the sound of things they just want you to spend more money with them. Personally, I think I will wait for cs5 before upgrading now.

  59. sam Says:

    amazing. my only question is how did you convince adobe to give you this info… 3 different employees gave me the run-around and tried to convince me to upgrade rather than giving this very simple explanation.

    thanks!

  60. Debbie Says:

    Thank you SOOOO much! This worked like a charm.

  61. richard Says:

    Thank you!!! Holy Smokes am I glad I found this site!! I have uninstalled and reinstalled CS2 about 5 times trying to get it to work. Finally found your advice, and it worked. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Good thing you’re not in the room or I’d give you a big bear hug. I’ve never been so frustrated with Adobe.
    Your Answer = Utilize software that was already purchased
    Adobe Answer = BUY our new software for just $799 (that’s the discounted price :O)

    I’m not too thrilled with Adobe on this. I even talked to a supervisor– he suggested I buy new. Adobe is VERY unethical on this one. You know they have the solution, but instead, are more concerned about hard selling.

    Total time spent installing CS2 on Windows 7– about 6 hours, no joke. Your solution took no more than 12 minutes, and worked.

    Thanks! ( B e a r H u g ) to you… and a little birdie to Adobe, :|

  62. Elsa Says:

    Hei good idears here.
    But i dont understand this path
    C:\Progra~2\Adobe as your installation path
    I have 2 possibilitis
    C: \Programmer\Adobe\ -here I also have Lightroom
    C: \Programmer (x86)\Adobe\ -here I have Elements -Reader- Acrobar

    I have danish Windows7 64 bit, and danish suite2, or maybee that is the problem. Just hope somebody could help, getting crazy….

  63. janpjens Says:

    Hm, no, it works here.
    Just ran it as I had a clean install :-)

    Could it be that your firewall is blocking it?

  64. janpjens Says:

    Never spoke with anyone at Adobe, luckily. Guess I would’ve given up myself then. :-)

  65. janpjens Says:

    Fear not!
    You have to type in the path yourself – copy it off the blogpost and paste in right into the textbox where the path goes.
    I’ve experienced that the installation does not allow me to go further (it leaves the next button disabled).
    This is fixed by clicking on the browse button, then pushing cancel (or “Annuller” as I imagine it would be with danish locale).

    So, in short: Type in the path manually / paste it in there, press Browse (“Gennemse” or “Søg” in danish?) then “Annuller”).

    Let me know if it works!

  66. Karen T Says:

    Thank you so much. I was stunned when Adobe just blew me off. “Sorry we only support cs3 and cs4.” I appreciate you providing this fix!

  67. Bekius64 Says:

    I’m glad I’ll be able to run my CS2 on the new computer I’m getting but I am curious to know if any of you are also running Macromedia Studio 8 as well… I am running it currently with my CS2 and am curious if the shortcut you gave here will work for it as well.

    thanks

  68. Emanuel Says:

    You. Are. A. Life. Saver.

    I know this was posted a long time ago, but I just now bumped into this issue and your solution worked beautifully (after many personal failed attempts). CS2 won’t be on this machine for long, but until CS4 comes in, I have to use it on the new machine. Thanks again!

  69. Pedro Says:

    Thanks much. Worked like a charm. Still hoping to get the PDF printer up and running, though.

  70. dave Says:

    I agree with Emanuel. And you are a money saver too.

    Just got a new machine running windows 7. Most programs are loading seamlessly. Not Adobe. I have CS2, it’s more than sufficient for my needs, and didn’t really want to go to the expense to upgrade to CS4 or buy other like software.

    Spoke at length with Adobe. They said CS2 absolutely could not be used on Windows 7, and tried hard to sell me an upgrade.

    My wife and I own a business. We never try to over sell, or peddle something at a higher price. Adobe on the other hand did the opposite, and I find that to be a real turn off.

    Many thanks for your post!!!

  71. Matt Says:

    I don’t want to beat a dead horse… but thanks a million for this blog post! I, like everyone else on here, thought I was screwed but you saved the day!!! thank you thank you thank you!!

  72. BastetJ Says:

    Thank you. This was so frustrating to me.

    Again, thank you.

  73. Anonymous Says:

    Yes, thank you we had to use your solution also!!!!!
    Now there is trouble with the fonts? Files I have created and need to reopen say there are fonts missing in illustrator and indesign?

  74. Donna Says:

    Thank you SO much for posting this!! Worked perfectly!

  75. cracken77 Says:

    Thank you for this post. Your suggestion worked beautifully, even though i was told by Adobe’s “awesome” tech support that CS2 absolutely would not run on Windows 7 and that the only solution would be to buy new software. Hmmm….sounds like all tech support calls that i have made to Adobe. You are officially the hero of our office…Thanks again.

  76. Marianne Says:

    Thank you!!! I just bought a new computer and wanted to move CS2 to it and was having this problem. I chatted with Adobe support and they just said CS2 wasn’t compatible with Win7 even though it was working fine on my old computer, which I’d upgraded to Win7 with CS2 already on it. I followed your instructions and it worked!!! Thanks again!

  77. Ruth Says:

    Thank you SO much for posting this. I tried to get CS2 running on my Windows 7 64 bit machine, and was completely unsuccessful, even after contacting Adobe tech support. I am now up and running using your simple instructions. Glad there are so many people like you who are willing to share their knowledge.

  78. Ben Says:

    Acrobat CS2 and Windows 7

    I got the suite to install, but Acrobat can’t install the PDF printer.

    I tried reinstalling Acrobat. I tried clicking the “repair” menu choice, but I get the same errors, something like “adobe could not install the printer due to access rights,” even running Acrobat as administrator.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks!

  79. Paola Says:

    Hi all, I’m going to buy a new laptop but it comes with Win 7 Home Premium 64bit. Does this fix work with this version or just on the RC or Professional? Has anyone tried illustrator cs2 on win7 home premium 64?

    Thanks a lot for this article, it’s kind of a light in the darkness!

  80. anonymous Says:

    any solutions on how to get photoshop cs2 to work with windows 7 aero?

  81. Luke Says:

    I’m using Windows 7 64bit + Full Creative Suite 2 Premium (instaled on other hard drive F:\Adobe) – and all application works fine (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Acrobat, Brigde, Dreamweaver 8), except InDesign CS2 … And there are no cheap cure for this problem http://forums.adobe.com/message/2376341

  82. Beagle Says:

    I am still struggling with uninstalling Adobe CS2 on my PC (Windows 7). I had installation problem the first time: the computer refused to read the second and third installation disks for some reason (even though the disks worked fine before the installation process). So I tried to uninstall the entire suite and start all over again. I should also mention that I couldn’t install it in the “regular” Program Files folder so I made up the “program~2″ folder as suggested here.

    But when I ran the Suite Installer again, it gives me a warning sign that says I need to uninstall Adobe Photoshop CS2 before continuing! I have already uninstalled everything Adobe CS2-related so I have no idea why it is saying that! I even tried using Revo Uninstaller to track down the “hidden” Adobe Photoshop CS2 but the program didn’t find anything.

    Please, PLEASE HELP! I have spent way too many hours agonizing over this!

  83. Saskia Says:

    Thank you so much, you saved my day and made me glad after some bad days of getting silly….
    CS2 works now!

  84. Holly Z. Says:

    So by this point you can tell that the problem has not been resolved and I had to do a little research today to help me install my Creative Suite 2 onto my new computer which is Windows 7. So all I got to say is Wow! This is awesome information and it works. Thank God! You saved me tons of money. I’m a happy girl!

  85. Kat Says:

    Thank you soooooooooo much! It worked for me, now I don’t have so shell out $699 to update to CS5!!!

  86. Sandy Says:

    Thank you! That was a lot of money sitting around doing nothing.

  87. i love you man Says:

    no , i really love you man

    thanks sooooo much

  88. Tony K Says:

    The instructions given here worked like a charm for me on my Win 7 64bit

  89. Ali Says:

    Another happy Windows 7 64bit user here :) Thanks for this – why are Adobe persisting in saying there’s no fix? It’s not predisposing me to buy anything else from them… happy customers are loyal customers, Adobe. Take heed!

  90. Anonymous Says:

    May be a little late but for those with the adobepdf.dll problem:
    http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401731.html

    Windows 7 64-bit
    Manually extract the file “adobepdf.dll_64″ from the data1.cab file before installing Acrobat. When the prompt appears, navigate to this file and select it.

    Navigate to the folder that contains the setup.exe file for your Acrobat 8 installation.
    Locate the file “data1.cab” and open it (this may require a third party compression utility, such as WinZip).
    Inside the content listings, locate the file “adobepdf.dll_64″ and copy it to your desktop.
    Run the installer setup.exe and when the prompt appears, choose browse and select the file you copied to the desktop.
    Note: If the file cannot be selected, change the file type drown down in the dialog box to “Files of All Types”, or rename the file to “adobepdf.dll” by removing “_64″ from the end of the file extension.

    I’ve had users run into memory issues when working in photoshop. Don’t know if anyone else faced that issue.

  91. Airness67 Says:

    Thanks so much, did it this way and works perfect!

    CS2 best PS ever!! :D

  92. Charles Says:

    Thanks! Great information. Just what I needed.

  93. jamvaught Says:

    I have Windows 7 (64 bit) and tried following the instructions posted in the article. The CS2 software acts as if its installing, and even shows the progress bar, but rushes through each stage withing seconds. After installation it doesn’t show up on windows. It does show up when I go to uninstall, but has a file size as zero. Can someone help me please?

  94. Martin Says:

    I know this is all about CS2, and it seems you have cracked it, great stuff! I have a related CS3 question – I tried to install CS3 on Win 7 and it installed okay, but none of the apps would open (just pretended to be doing something for hours)
    Do you think the same solution might apply to CS3?
    Thank you!!
    Martin

  95. Cami Says:

    Thank you soooo much I search for awhile online before I found this and you put it in easy terms and it seemed so simple :D

  96. Emily Says:

    You are a genius, thank you! I tried to install CS2 in the “program files” (NOT x86) folder at first too, and even though the programs did in fact install into the “Program Files (x86)” folder (don’t ask me how….) they didn’t work properly till I tried your fix :)

  97. eileen Says:

    Thanks so much for this!

  98. GerWa Says:

    thank you so much!!! I’d better searched google before to find your hint – instead of calling adobe … really great, thanks!!!

  99. KvdV Says:

    Thank you very very much for the rescue tip!!

  100. RM Says:

    I’ve just installed Win 7 and had the issue of CS2 not working only with 32 bit. I installed and uninstalled it several times. Each time a program (ie. Photoshop) would start to load and then stop and say something about a library missing – or some such. My son in law got it going for me after he had ‘installed’ it. Here’s how ( I think I recorded it correctly!):
    Go to:
    C:\Program Files
    Right click ‘Adobe’
    Choose ‘Properties’
    Choose ‘Security Tab’
    Choose ‘Edit’
    Add > User name of user (whatever it is)
    Tick ‘Full Control’
    Click ‘Ok’ Twice

    Program works…sigh of relief…

  101. Linda Says:

    Awesome! – so far so good – I really appreciate this info which worked once I found the”~” on my keyboard ha-ha! Adobe should be ashamed – they are uninterested in “domestic” users like myself who can only afford a CS once every 3 years or so – at my reckoning the amount I have used the software equates to around $20 per hour – so YES, I did need to get it running in Win7 64bit. THANKS SO MUCH!

  102. Steve Says:

    The alternative file path also worked for me in installing Macromedia Studio MX 2004.

  103. TENKOMORI Says:

    I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would like to pay the part and you who did not need to buy CS4 and did not need to pay money to fucking Adobe.

    I am sorry. Since I am a Japanese, I cannot speak English.
    本当に有難う!!!!!

  104. Tine Says:

    Hi,

    This is a wild shot, but nobody seems to be able to help me, and I’m desperate, so now I’ll try you.

    For 18 months I’ve been using Adobe Creative Suite 2 together with Windows 7/64 bit, and it works perfectly, thanks to you! (Thank you so very much!)
    Recently I’ve invested in a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, but unfortuantely Photoshops raw converter cannot read the raw-files, so I’ve tried to download and install Adobes Camera Raw 3.7, wich I’ve been told will work fine with my camera.

    On http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3587 I’m told to place the plug-in here:
    Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CS2/File Formats

    However this doesn’t exist on my computer, so I’ve tried 20 other locations – for instance:
    … (x86)/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-ins/File Formats

    But nothing works!

    Have you got any idea, where to place the Camera Raw plug-in?

  105. Chelsea Says:

    THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

  106. David L Says:

    i have read with interstes all of the mistakes i made trying to install CS2 on to my new windows 7 machine (lenovo)., the funny thing is that 6 months before it did it without a hitch on my lapotop m9also lenovo). anyway, i made the usual mistake of trying to install it to an “Adobe” folder. the problem was and is the damn thing wont uninstall. i used Revo Unistaller which seemed to remove some items and i mannually delted all fo the files and folder i can find. when i now try to re-install CS2 withthe fixes outlined, the disks/septup still says i have CS2 components installed outside the suite and whty wpnt let me install anything. do i hve to go int the registry? not something i am happy about. is ther a cleaner for CS2 out there? the only one i found was for CS3 and above

  107. Ron Says:

    Here’s another suggestion to solve the problem if you don’t want to install CS2 to the directory provided above. I have a very small 100GB main hard drive (SSD) and space is a premium, so I have 500GB drive in the drive bay where I want to install memory hog programs like CS2. So, I installed the software to my E:/Adobe directory. When CS2 wanted to “Activate” the program it wants to find Photoshop in the directory above. You only need the license files there once to activate. Once you Activate you don’t need them anymore in that directory. So, install to the drive/path you want. Copy the entire Photoshop Folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\
    Then run the activation. Worked perfect. Then delete the Photoshop director from this directory and you’re good to go. Once you activate Photoshop, all of the other apps automatically activate as well.

  108. Fred Says:

    Hey,

    Thanks for the help, works like a charm!

  109. Eric Says:

    Greetings! I just wanted to thank you for saving the day.

    Your article still has a lasting impact even in 2012!

  110. Poy Says:

    Merci beaucoup !!!
    Pour ceux qui ne comprennent pas l’anglais, il suffit de remplacer le chemin du dossier d’installation proposé par :
    C:/Program~2/Adobe

    Et tout est impecc’ !
    Merci !

  111. Tony Says:

    Thank you for this tip. My old hard drive with Windows XP finally gave up last month, so a new onw with Windows 7 was required. Had no trouble loading CS2 onto it with your advice.

    The only issue I have is it won’t get the CS2 updates from the web, as adobeupdater.exe doesn’t seem to work. Anyone get this to work? It’s more a nice to have than essential, to be fair.

  112. Angel Says:

    Tack….har slitit och svurit nu när jag bytte dator…..tack vare ditt tips fungerade det :-) :-) TACK

  113. J Says:

    DUDE!

  114. Janis Says:

    Thank you SO much for posting this! Worked on our new HP Windows 7 system, using your file name, without even a blip! God bless you for your time.

  115. Firos Says:

    Thank you very much. It really works.

  116. Sandra Says:

    Thank you!!!

  117. Alexander Says:

    Je bent geweldig!!
    Onze Adobe Creative Suite 2 werkt nu wel onder Windows 8.
    64 bit versie.

    Thanks a lot, our Adobe Creative Suite 2 works now fine under Windows 8 64 bit version.

Leave a Reply