I had no idea that getting Adobe Photoshop CS2 to work on Windows Vista Home Premium was difficult. As a matter of fact, as someone who has been using Photoshop for many years I assumed it would be easy. Silly me. Following is my account of dealing with Adobe Support to try and get my legal copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 to work on my new machine, which coincidentally came with Vista Home Premium. Note that the issues I experienced had nothing to do with Photoshop functionality, the only problem I had was getting the software to accept my serial number.

The Back Story

I’ll start by describing my situation. It wasn’t one that I initially thought was odd, but Adobe’s support personnel have had one hell of a time wrapping their mind around it so I can only assume that my situation is mind (and possibly time, space and physics) bending.

  1. I have owned and used Photoshop CS2 since 2005
  2. I recently purchased a new computer from Dell, it came with Windows Vista Home Premium (so I decided to try the much maligned OS)
  3. I wanted to install, register and activate my copy of Photoshop CS2 on my new computer

The Assets

Now that you have a little back story, I’d like to tell you how I’m set up just to be sure there’s no misunderstanding (again, Adobe support couldn’t fathom this setup).

  1. My new computer is a hardware monster, it dwarfs the minimum requirements for Photoshop CS2 from a hardware standpoint
  2. I still have the original download of Photoshop CS2 that I got from Adobe on a CD (I thought it was pretty standard to back up purchased and downloaded software, apparently it isn’t)

The Problem: Part 1

Now for the fun. While I was installing Photoshop it asked me for a serial number. Like a good customer and someone who writes software for a living I don’t keep a copy of the serial number along with the software install. Instead, I depend on Adobe to keep up with that for me. So during the pause in the installation I headed out to Adobe’s site and logged into my account to take a look at my serial number. When I got to the appropriate page, however, the site informed me that the registration services were not available.

“No problem” I thought, and continued to click the “Trial” button to go ahead and install Photoshop CS2 so I could use it for the task I needed and activate / register it later once the registration services were back online. Logic has been the downfall of many…

The Problem: Part 2 – The Problem Grows

I finished my task with no problems, saved my graphics files and continued on about my way comfortable in the knowledge that soon Adobe would be back online and everything would be tidied up.

So the next day before I head out for the day I check on the registration services site again only to find that it’s still down. I figured what the heck, I’ll call their support center. The conversation with the support personnel was pretty short… as she informed me that she couldn’t help me because the registration service was down.

“Well that’s less than ideal, but whatever…” I thought as I headed out the door.

Online Support

At some point during my day that day I had a thought, “I might as well submit an online ticket so the nice support folks can get to my problem as soon as the flaky registration service comes back online.” So as soon as I got home I sat down and submitted a support ticket using Adobe’s site.

Two days later (on Monday, which is fine, they don’t work weekends) I got an e-mail with a PDF attachment… apparently this is how Adobe’s support communicates… via an e-mail with a PDF attachment. What a clever way to try and force people to use Adobe Reader. Anyhow, the gist of the message was that they would be unable to help me because it was a weekend (note that this was sent on Monday). However, the message continues on to tell me that my Photoshop CS2 serial number will not work with Photoshop CS3. They then continue to assure me that they were happy to have solved this issue for me.

Of course, CS3 had nothing whatsoever to do with my problem, so I responded. Admittedly it took me until the next Saturday to do so (after all, the trial was working, getting it activated wasn’t my top priority). I was pretty straightforward but polite in my response that CS3 was nowhere to be found. I even used Photoshop CS2 to make the image below and attach it to the support ticket. You see, the only problem I had is that I couldn’t enter my serial number… nothing else was wrong!

The image I sent to Adobe\'s Support

On Sunday (the next day, at least these guys are prompt) I got a message informing me that it was the weekend. This time, however, I was instructed to call Adobe’s support telephone number instead of bothering the online support folks, they said the phone support personnel would be better qualified to handle my unique issue.

Telephone Support

So on Sunday I went ahead and called the Adobe support folks again. I got a nice individual on the phone who seemed genuinely eager to help me solve this issue of epic proportions.

Of course, all he could tell me was that Photoshop CS2 does not work on Vista, I need to upgrade to Photoshop CS3. After me spending 20 minutes trying to convince him not only did it work, but I used it to make the attachment on the ticket, my support tech was ready to get rid of me. He told me to call back some other time, when the technical support folks would be around. I had to wonder who exactly I had been talking to all this time if not technical support.

Going Rogue

The time had come for me to put some of my own time into solving this problem. In all honesty, it wasn’t that hard to solve once I put my mind to it. I had originally hoped for a quick fix from Adobe but once it was obvious they were not going to be of help… and that my trial would run out… I had to figure out how to make things work on my own.

I researched the problem on the web and found some vague references to it, but nothing that out and out told you how to fix it. Thus this article…

There seem to be several approaches to fixing the problem that people have found over time. However, I found what worked for me and it goes a little something like this:

  1. Uninstall Photoshop completely
  2. Disable Vista’s UAC functionality
  3. Re-install Photoshop CS2 in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode
  4. Enter your serial number during the initial installation
  5. Run Photoshop CS2 in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode

I will add a more detailed post at some point in the future which outlines each of the steps in detail, possibly with screen shots if I find the time (now that my copy of Photoshop isn’t going to expire).

Note that I was never able to get the “Activation” popup in Photoshop to work, it would always give me the error listed in the picture above. However, the first time I used my serial during installation using the steps I just outlined everything seemed to work great.

The Conclusion

Adobe Photoshop CS2 does, in fact, work on Windows Vista Home Premium if you’re willing to toy with it. Of course, having to toy with it is the reason I don’t use Photoshop’s competitors.