Mike,
Yes, I like it very much so far. I am upgrading from version 6.0, so naturally, there are a lot of new things that I like a lot. The clone tool is simply beautiful, among many other new features that I’m still discovering. A lot of software begins to suffer bloat that makes the program a hassle to use, and this is simply not the case with Phothoshop. Kudos to the Photoshop team at Adobe.
In regards to me reinstalling the program: It seems that the installer is smart enough to be aware of reinstalls and allows me to continue the same 30-day trial period. To repeat — I did not "extend" my trial. I reinstalled the program and continued two days into the same trial period, with 28 days remaining instead of 30. Otherwise, it would be very unintuitive to offer the user an option to uninstall and reinstall the trial without any warning, right?
However, this whole boot sector thing is kind of rubbing me the wrong way for the following reasons:
a) I don’t recall that version 6.0 did this.
b) This is something that I would not expect a user-level program to do. Photoshop is not a system utility; Most system utilities ask me before writing to the boot sector. I imagine this is mentioned somewhere in the EULA, but that’s not enough IMO.
c) What if I choose to install a second operating system that overwrites this hash? I assume that Photoshop does not let anyone know that this area of the boot sector is not to be overwritten?
d) What if another program besides Photoshop decides to use a similar
protection method? Will they conflict with each other?
e) Should I buy Photoshop and enter a registration key, will it still continue to check the boot sector for verification? If I buy a retail copy at Joe’s Electronics, will it also write to the boot sector? (I don’t know if this is something Adobe developed or licensed from another software company just for the trial version.)
Best regards,
Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
a) The problem seems to have been fixed after I installed SP2. It may have just needed a reboot… It seems like some kind of messaging service that Photoshop uses to relay Menu commands was not running.
b) WHAT THE HELL is this installer doing writing to my boot sector?!!! What… the… hell? I guess that is why the installation requires Administrator rights? This is preposterous. Among other scenarios, what if I was dual-booting this machine and was using the normally "unused" space?
B,
It does this so as you cannot exceed the 30 trial period by re installing it a second or more times or even as some have tried by resetting the system clock or installing a ghost image. Try doing that and regardless how long is remaining of the trial period, it refuses to work. They (Adobe) considerered using the registry for this but realised it would be to easy to find and remove the trial keys, etc. Hence writing to the boot sector. How you have managed to circumvent this process and installed the trial twice is a mystery.
Re dual booting, I have read it checks all hard drive boot sectors for copies of the security hashes prior to installion.
But as you have now got it working do you like it? 😉
Regards
Mike H