Ah, the joys of product ACTIVATION!

KB
Posted By
Ken_Bernstein
Jan 5, 2004
Views
341
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I’ve been using Photoshop CS on my Windows xp system for two months without any activation problems, as recently as late this afternoon, until now. Having just used the Windows System Restore facility to bring my PC back to a state of two days ago, during which there has been no hardware changes at all, I started up Photoshop and I got a message saying that I had to reactivate the software immediately or the program wouldn’t run any more. Of course, I said "okay" and the program reactivated okay. This gives me 3 questions:

1. Why should the reactivation event have been triggered in the first place?

2. Did I use up one of the "free" reactivations that may be built into the program, so that now when I actually do change hardware or move the program to a different computer, I’ll run into activation problems?

3. I checked the Adobe web site pretty thoroughly, but I can’t find an email address of tech support so that I can ask these questions. IS THERE ANY ADOBE TECH SUPPORT (or am I too stupid or dense to find the email address by myself)?

Thanks,
–Ken
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DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 5, 2004
Ken,

I’m not certain of the answer to your first question but I’d guess this to be a "glitch" of sorts in how the activation state is determined. Technically, it seems that no reactivation should be required since no changes were made in your PS CS installation prior to or after the system restore, nor were any system hardware changes made.

As to the "free" reactivation, no worries there…you can reactivate as many times as you want, so long as this is done on the same machine to which PS CS was first installed and activated. Meanwhile, you can further install PS CS on a second PC such as a laptop that you might travel with. Once those two systems each have their PS CS installation activated, that’s it…no more new activations can be accomplished without uninstalling PS CS from one of those 2 systems. However, you can continue to reactivate PS CS on each system as often as is required. If you then proceed to install PS CS on another system, you’ll have to jump through a few more hoops to get that done, via whatever coordination is required with Adobe in order to get the activation record of the older system deleted.

I don’t know of a tech support e-mail address for Adobe. Posting a question here is often suggested as a first direction for seeking a solution to a problem, but that help comes from fellow PS users. Adobe employees also commonly contribute to the forum but not in an official tech support capacity per se. Formal tech support is provided, but in a limited manner that should be identified among whatever materials accompanied your PS purchase…I don’t recall the details since I’ve never used tech support. Glancing at the Support info on the Adobe website, it appears that complimentary support will be provided for single products effective this February. The scope of the support is limited however, and more technical problem assistance may not be covered. In any case, support is sought by phone rather than e-mail. Here’s the page I was looking at: <http://www.adobe.com/support/cfcomp.html>

Regards,

Daryl
MM
Mac_McDougald
Jan 5, 2004
… I’d guess this to be a "glitch" of sorts in how the activation state is determined.

Similar to tryout versions terminating if system clock is touched *at all*.

Mac
Y
YrbkMgr
Jan 5, 2004
I read a similar post where Ian Lyons’ said that while it shouldn’t happen, Adobe is aware that it does happen and is looking into it.

Peace,
Tony
KB
Ken_Bernstein
Jan 5, 2004
Thanks, guys. I appreciate your help and am reasonably reassured!

–Ken
DM
dave_milbut
Jan 6, 2004
ken, see stephanie’s reply in this thread:

Stephanie Schaefer "System restore and instant reactivation" 1/5/04 12:30pm </cgi-bin/webx?14/3>
DE
david_evanson
Jan 6, 2004
Â… Adobe is aware that it does happen and is looking into it.

Can we expect it to be ‘fixed’ if/when a CS patch is released?
DM
dave_milbut
Jan 6, 2004
dave, if you read the post i linked to you’d see steph’s reply:

We understand that this can be an inconvience for our customers and will review this behavior for a future release.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

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