Adobe can’t count…

well, it’s not a trial, it’s a beta. is it possible the beta is set to expire now that the shipping version is out? wouldn’t suprise me.

the actual trial versions of current ps vers usually come out 6-8 weeks after the final version ships.

This was the shipping (supposedly final) version bought from the Adobe shop last week. No beta ever touched this PC. Supposed to be able to run it as a trial for 30 days before I have to put the serial in.

NigelS

Did you mess with your computer clock? Reset it, for instance?

ah. what larry said. messing with the clock will (in the past anyway) auto-time out the trials.

Sometimes trials evaporate for reasons of their own. I attempted to install Nikon’s Capture NX (trial) last week. The first time it ran it told me my 30 day trial had expired. I never even got 30 seconds out of it, let alone 30 days.

Did you mess with your computer clock? Reset it, for instance? > Don’t

think so; I did revert to an earlier CompletePC Restore image after testing some software yesterday; but the image I restored was created after the PS installation date last week so it shouldn’t have affected the trial period countdown.

Anyway it’s all academic now, since I’ve had to stick the serial key in just to keep the program running.

NigelS

did revert to an earlier CompletePC Restore image after testing some software yesterday;

That would be the culprit. The demo code looks out for things like that, to prevent users from using images to keep a demo within the 30 day limit. I don’t know how they do it, but they do have something about that.

"The demo code looks out for things like that…I don’t know how they do it"

Nor do I Don, but I certainly hope whatever is done with the demo is avoided in the retail release or in a demo that has been upgraded to a retail version with a valid product key. I’d sure hate to see CS3 activation revert back to the woes of CS where System Restore or the restoration of a drive image would put the activation state at risk.

Of course, as various products are issued in multiple flavors these days, with certain features "unlocked" according to the product key entered, it could well be that a demo is no more sophisticated than just installing a file in some obscure location. Then, by saving the initial access date/time and comparing that against the system date/time, an installation age could be determined which in turn would govern expiration of the demo. When a retail key is entered, the obscure file could be deleted or manipulated in some other way that serves the purpose of the retail license. I suspect however that a more sophisticated and less readily hacked approach is used.

Daryl

Funny (not!) but hackers seem to have no trouble getting anything these days, despite all this falderol.

We pay for it.

wrote in message

"The demo code looks out for things like that…I don’t know how they do it"
Nor do I Don, but I certainly hope whatever is done with the demo is avoided in the retail release or in a demo that has been

upgraded to a retail version with a valid product key. I’d sure hate to see CS3 activation revert back to the woes of CS where
System Restore or the restoration of a drive image would put the activation state at risk.

Of course, as various products are issued in multiple flavors these days, with certain features "unlocked" according to the

product key entered, it could well be that a demo is no more sophisticated than just installing a file in some obscure location.
Then, by saving the initial access date/time and comparing that against the system date/time, an installation age could be
determined which in turn would govern expiration of the demo. When a retail key is entered, the obscure file could be deleted or
manipulated in some other way that serves the purpose of the retail license. I suspect however that a more sophisticated and less
readily hacked approach is used.

—————–
If Adobe is still using Macrovision SafeCast, when CS3 is installed it writes a block to a reserved area of the installation drive (absolute sector 32). Unless you use one of the "forensic" options in Ghost or another disk image utility, these reserved areas are bypassed during copying/restoring. This is how Adobe knows when a date mismatch exists.