Cannot open files (have read FAQs and Google)

B
Posted By
breakfast
Mar 24, 2006
Views
475
Replies
12
Status
Closed
I just installed the CS2 trial on Windows XP SP1.

No matter how I try to open a file, it does not open. Photoshop displays the hourglass for under a second, but no file appears. This happens when I:

– Try to open a file from Windows Explorer
– Try to open a file by dragging it into Photoshop
– Try to open a file through File – Open
– Try to create a new file.

The file I try to open is added to the Recent Files list under the File menu.

I have tried repairing the installation, as well as uninstalling and then installing again.

It worked fine the first day, but no longer does.

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MH
Mike Hyndman
Mar 24, 2006
wrote in message
I just installed the CS2 trial on Windows XP SP1.

No matter how I try to open a file, it does not open. Photoshop displays the hourglass for under a second, but no file appears. This happens when I:

– Try to open a file from Windows Explorer
– Try to open a file by dragging it into Photoshop
– Try to open a file through File – Open
– Try to create a new file.

The file I try to open is added to the Recent Files list under the File menu.

I have tried repairing the installation, as well as uninstalling and then installing again.

It worked fine the first day, but no longer does.

B,

You cannot install the trial version a second time.

Doing anything which could be construed to trying to get more than 30 days free (such as altering the system clock) will cause it to immediately abort.

HTH
MH
B
breakfast
Mar 24, 2006
Mike,

It does not immediately abort — I am still able to start the program and still have "28 days left" of my free trial.

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
I just installed the CS2 trial on Windows XP SP1.

No matter how I try to open a file, it does not open. Photoshop displays the hourglass for under a second, but no file appears. This happens when I:

– Try to open a file from Windows Explorer
– Try to open a file by dragging it into Photoshop
– Try to open a file through File – Open
– Try to create a new file.

The file I try to open is added to the Recent Files list under the File menu.

I have tried repairing the installation, as well as uninstalling and then installing again.

It worked fine the first day, but no longer does.

B,

You cannot install the trial version a second time.

Doing anything which could be construed to trying to get more than 30 days free (such as altering the system clock) will cause it to immediately abort.
HTH
MH
MH
Mike Hyndman
Mar 24, 2006
wrote in message
Mike,

It does not immediately abort — I am still able to start the program and still have "28 days left" of my free trial.

Never heard of that before, two trial instalations on the same (unformatted?)PC.
Try deleting your preference file, hold down the control+shift+alt whilst restarting PS.

HTH
Mike H
B
breakfast
Mar 24, 2006
Preferences file deleted, but problem still persists.

This isn’t two trial installations — this is the same trial installation that i have uninstalled and reinstalled. That is, I have not gained any extra time — I still have 28 days remaining today, having performed the initial installation about two days ago.

Photoshop starts up and then the trial window appears. I press "Continue Trial" and am faced with a clean Photoshop window. All the default pallettes are visible. I go to File -> Open and select a .jpg file. An hourglass appears, and then disappears. Here’s the kicker: The file is added to the "Open Recent" submenu under the File menu. I then go to File -> New and click OK to create a new blank file with default settings. Same thing — hourglass, then nothing.

Something that may help… I have also installed Adobe Photoshop Album Starter edition previously. Here is the order of what happened:

1. Installed Photoshop Album Starter. It worked fine.
2. Installed Photoshop CS2 Trial.
3. Photoshop CS2 works fine.
4. Photoshop CS2 stops working as described above.
5. Uninstall Photoshop Album Starter. No change in behavior of CS2.
7. Repair CS2. No change.
8. Uninstall and reinstall CS2. No change.

I have yet to install any updates, and will try that later today.

Thank you for your replies.

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
Mike,

It does not immediately abort — I am still able to start the program and still have "28 days left" of my free trial.

Never heard of that before, two trial instalations on the same (unformatted?)PC.
Try deleting your preference file, hold down the control+shift+alt whilst restarting PS.

HTH
Mike H
B
breakfast
Mar 24, 2006
Update: Original problem persists, but I have managed to open a file in Photoshop by using the following steps:

1. Open the file in ImageReady.
2. Go to File -> Edit in Photoshop.

wrote:
Preferences file deleted, but problem still persists.

This isn’t two trial installations — this is the same trial installation that i have uninstalled and reinstalled. That is, I have not gained any extra time — I still have 28 days remaining today, having performed the initial installation about two days ago.
Photoshop starts up and then the trial window appears. I press "Continue Trial" and am faced with a clean Photoshop window. All the default pallettes are visible. I go to File -> Open and select a .jpg file. An hourglass appears, and then disappears. Here’s the kicker: The file is added to the "Open Recent" submenu under the File menu. I then go to File -> New and click OK to create a new blank file with default settings. Same thing — hourglass, then nothing.

Something that may help… I have also installed Adobe Photoshop Album Starter edition previously. Here is the order of what happened:
1. Installed Photoshop Album Starter. It worked fine.
2. Installed Photoshop CS2 Trial.
3. Photoshop CS2 works fine.
4. Photoshop CS2 stops working as described above.
5. Uninstall Photoshop Album Starter. No change in behavior of CS2.
7. Repair CS2. No change.
8. Uninstall and reinstall CS2. No change.

I have yet to install any updates, and will try that later today.
Thank you for your replies.

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
Mike,

It does not immediately abort — I am still able to start the program and still have "28 days left" of my free trial.

Never heard of that before, two trial instalations on the same (unformatted?)PC.
Try deleting your preference file, hold down the control+shift+alt whilst restarting PS.

HTH
Mike H
B
breakfast
Mar 24, 2006
Update 2: Now that I have actually tried working with an image, I noticed that /none/ of the menus that I have tried work. For example, Image->Adjust->Brightness/Contrast and Image->Adjust->Levels all display an hourglass for a split-second and then nothing. It looks like something is preventing the menus from launching their normal functionality.

wrote:
Update: Original problem persists, but I have managed to open a file in Photoshop by using the following steps:

1. Open the file in ImageReady.
2. Go to File -> Edit in Photoshop.

wrote:
Preferences file deleted, but problem still persists.

This isn’t two trial installations — this is the same trial installation that i have uninstalled and reinstalled. That is, I have not gained any extra time — I still have 28 days remaining today, having performed the initial installation about two days ago.
Photoshop starts up and then the trial window appears. I press "Continue Trial" and am faced with a clean Photoshop window. All the default pallettes are visible. I go to File -> Open and select a .jpg file. An hourglass appears, and then disappears. Here’s the kicker: The file is added to the "Open Recent" submenu under the File menu. I then go to File -> New and click OK to create a new blank file with default settings. Same thing — hourglass, then nothing.

Something that may help… I have also installed Adobe Photoshop Album Starter edition previously. Here is the order of what happened:
1. Installed Photoshop Album Starter. It worked fine.
2. Installed Photoshop CS2 Trial.
3. Photoshop CS2 works fine.
4. Photoshop CS2 stops working as described above.
5. Uninstall Photoshop Album Starter. No change in behavior of CS2.
7. Repair CS2. No change.
8. Uninstall and reinstall CS2. No change.

I have yet to install any updates, and will try that later today.
Thank you for your replies.

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
Mike,

It does not immediately abort — I am still able to start the program and still have "28 days left" of my free trial.

Never heard of that before, two trial instalations on the same (unformatted?)PC.
Try deleting your preference file, hold down the control+shift+alt whilst restarting PS.

HTH
Mike H
MH
Mike Hyndman
Mar 24, 2006
wrote in message
Preferences file deleted, but problem still persists.

This isn’t two trial installations — this is the same trial installation that i have uninstalled and reinstalled. That is, I have not gained any extra time — I still have 28 days remaining today, having performed the initial installation about two days ago.
Photoshop starts up and then the trial window appears. I press "Continue Trial" and am faced with a clean Photoshop window. All the default pallettes are visible. I go to File -> Open and select a .jpg file. An hourglass appears, and then disappears. Here’s the kicker: The file is added to the "Open Recent" submenu under the File menu. I then go to File -> New and click OK to create a new blank file with default settings. Same thing — hourglass, then nothing.
B,

I cannot explain this, it shouldn’t be possible to install a trial version twice on the same PC as security hashes are generated that reflects the hardware the trial version is installed to and this info is written to the boot sector of the harddrive. The only way to install the trial again to the same PC would be to perform a low level format of the hard drive.

Regards

MH
B
breakfast
Mar 25, 2006

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?

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
Preferences file deleted, but problem still persists.

This isn’t two trial installations — this is the same trial installation that i have uninstalled and reinstalled. That is, I have not gained any extra time — I still have 28 days remaining today, having performed the initial installation about two days ago.
Photoshop starts up and then the trial window appears. I press "Continue Trial" and am faced with a clean Photoshop window. All the default pallettes are visible. I go to File -> Open and select a .jpg file. An hourglass appears, and then disappears. Here’s the kicker: The file is added to the "Open Recent" submenu under the File menu. I then go to File -> New and click OK to create a new blank file with default settings. Same thing — hourglass, then nothing.
B,

I cannot explain this, it shouldn’t be possible to install a trial version twice on the same PC as security hashes are generated that reflects the hardware the trial version is installed to and this info is written to the boot sector of the harddrive. The only way to install the trial again to the same PC would be to perform a low level format of the hard drive.
Regards

MH
MH
Mike Hyndman
Mar 25, 2006
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
B
breakfast
Mar 25, 2006
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
MH
Mike Hyndman
Mar 26, 2006
wrote in message
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?

It is smart enough to be aware of reinstalls…..and refuses. 😉 You are the first person I have heard of who has been able to do this.

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.)

This method of installation/verification/activation came in with CS (8) to combat piracy. When you "buy" the retail version it still writes to the MBR and generates the same security hashes which generates another number which you phone Adobe with to activate the product ( another set of numbers) This will allow you up to two installations (I think) on different PC’s at any one time. You can do it a third time if you uninstall one of the earlier ones. Any more and you are on the phone to Adobe to plead with them to do a reset. I have also read that this area of the MBR cannot be copied, (along with other system files) or overwritten leading to some people suggesting that something more "sinister" could be taking place or be able to. I have also heard that the application can fail and require reactivation, if you upgrade the resident PC too much and is therefore no longer "recognised" as the same PC it was originally installed on. Enjoy 😉

Regards

Mike H
B
breakfast
Mar 26, 2006
Mike,

Thanks a lot for all your time and the information. I will continue with the trial, and maybe go with CS2… However, I am thinking about upgrading to 7.0 instead.

Thanks again!

Mike Hyndman wrote:
wrote in message
Mike,

It is smart enough to be aware of reinstalls…..and refuses. 😉 You are the first person I have heard of who has been able to do this.

Well, I feel lucky. 🙂

This method of installation/verification/activation came in with CS (8) to combat piracy. When you "buy" the retail version it still writes to the MBR and generates the same security hashes which generates another number which you phone Adobe with to activate the product ( another set of numbers) This will allow you up to two installations (I think) on different PC’s at any one time. You can do it a third time if you uninstall one of the earlier ones. Any more and you are on the phone to Adobe to plead with them to do a reset. I have also read that this area of the MBR cannot be copied, (along with other system files) or overwritten leading to some people suggesting that something more "sinister" could be taking place or be able to. I have also heard that the application can fail and require reactivation, if you upgrade the resident PC too much and is therefore no longer "recognised" as the same PC it was originally installed on. Enjoy 😉

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