Software Photoshop and Creative Suite Activation Woes

Having used Adobe Photoshop since beta Version 1 - way back in 1989 - I've personally found the activation introduced into the PC creative Suite to be problematic . . . same for the installation process when upgrading.

My Windows and Office activations (or genuine checks) have never posed me a problem (touch wood).

But Adobe's Creative Suite has caught me out many times;

1. Got a virus on my laptop on a Thursday. Spent two days cleaning it all out, and went off to shoot a wedding on Saturday. Had agreed to do a slide show, and after reception got laptop out to process images. But discovered Photoshop had locked me out, claiming it wasn't activated . . . no 30 day grace period just instant shut off. 7pm on a Saturday evening not much I could do at a castle in the middle of nowhere.

2. Installing CS2 upgrade onto my main desktop . . . the install process wasn't happy with the check for a prior version. i'd put the CD in, but the install software didn't want to even attempt to check it. This was on a Friday evening. Phoned USA support (I'm UK customer) and they both refused to help, and also said they technically couldn't help anyways as I would need a reissue of Serial Numbers. After a couple of hours tring to persuade them otherwise, i told supervisor I would phone back claiming to have downloaded trial version, with suitable USA address. Called back, said new using having problems with trial version, gave Adobe's head office as my address, put straight through to technical, they gave me enough info to trip the validation check to next stage. Bingo, software working, but after 2 hours on the phone! Alternative was to wait till Monday for UK support to open. Didn't try to activate, had 30 day grace period running.

3. Having checked step 2, I reformatted disc one week later, to install whole list of fresh software. Adobe fell asleep for some reason during it's part, wouldn't complete install, needed second go, then it claimed zero days left . . . as a fresh install I expected 30, or very least 30 minus one week. Trouble is activation now failed . . . I suspected due to install glitch, but even reformat and reinstall wouldn't fix . . . this was a saturday monring. Automated telephone activation wasn't working, web site activation server went down a few hours later . . . and UK support closed to Tuesday for weekend and training on Monday.

Having paid my hard earned, and been a customer for so many years, their activation is proving just a little troublesome.

My suggestion's to Adobe are;
1) Pay microsoft to get activation integrated properly.
2) Don't just have 30 grace period from initial install, but perhaps 7 days for any reinstall, or more importantly if the activation gets corrupted.
3) Better still use Dongles . . . give one to user for desktop and latop, unlimited time . . . and give them one spare with the 30 day limit encoded, that can be used if first fails, and subsequently shipped back for topup in such cases.

AK

 

4) Screw activation - pirates get it anyways, and all it does is irritate paying customers such as yourself.