System Upgrade - Adobe CS3

System Upgrade - Adobe CS3
Part 2 - December 08, 2007

This is part 2 of my experience installing Adobe CS3 Master Collection - this is a second file because the first page was getting too large.

Adobe Stock Photos

When I saw Adobe Stock Photos I figured

Free photos

Boy was I wrong. This is a tool to sell you photos - though Adobe says that "customers never pay more than list price", I assume they get some profit.

For example, the image in the tutorial was about $300. (The FAQ says $50 to $500 per image per resolution.) No, I'm not spending that kind of money to produce a web page.

There is a confusing license

You have a "perpetual right to ... display the Images an unlimited number of times in" then it lists several "authorized purposes" - section 2.1
As long as it is never seen "by more than ten (10) users unless a separate license is purchased" - section 2.4

(By the way, you can NOT copy text from the license (pdf) to the clipboard, so I had to manually type this.) The following is from the FAQ

Most comp images ... are not licensed for production use.
How long can I use a comp image after I've downloaded it?
The license agreement for a comp image allows for a 30-day tryout usage of the image.

Of course - I could not find that in the license. Actually the phrase comp image is not defined in any of the Adobe documents (I even tried F1 help) ... it could mean almost anything.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Basically, then entire purpose of this application to sell photos - what a rip off. (Unless you are making a living producing graphics for profit, then this makes a lot of sense.)

This is one application I won't install again.

(PS - In the old days, Corel Draw came with a CD full of clip art and photos.)

Adobe Fireworks

I used to be able to quickly view *.gif images by simply double clicking them - Now I have to wait for Fireworks to load ...

If I right click, I can still select Preview ... but this used to be the default.

Question - This system has Flash, Photoshop, and Illustrator ... what purpose does Fireworks serve anyway? (I won't reinstall this either.)

One of the tutorials shows the use of controls to create an html form. This is actually pretty cool. Even better, Fireworks has Create Symbol Script that allows you to create your own controls with what ever properties you want. Other tutorials - html - show how to create a symbol from scratch - note that Fireworks creates JavaScript for these.

Windows Explorer and IE are Crippled

Ever sense installing Adobe CS3, everytime I double click an *.html file in Windows Explorer, I have to wait for the external USB drive to start-up.

Double clicking an *.html file opens it in IE.

For some reason, Windows Explorer is checking out DreamWeaver, Soundbooth, Fireworks, Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and more Adobe files on the USB drive. Via RegMon, these are associated with

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications

In all fairness, this appears to be a Windows XP design problem - there is no way that double clicking an *.txt file (configured to open in notepad) should require Windows Explorer to see which Adobe applications are still available.

Apparently, the rule here is that no programs should be placed on USB drives.

I am still collecting data on this ... but it takes a while for the USB drive to power down.

Other

Adobe Soundbooth is a winner - use this to record and edit sound files (voice overs) ... but be sure to watch the tutorials

Size on Z-Drive

Adobe Folder	12.2 GB 53,393 Files 6,505 Folders	These values contain all the folders below - this is included as just a summary.
Acrobat 8.0	1.11 GB 3,905 Files 408 Folders	Do NOT put this on a removable drive ... it will cause extreme system slowness. This is the size left AFTER I uninstalled the software. All but 2 directories were empty.
Adobe After Effects CS3	2.09 GB 9,687 Files 518 Folders
Adobe Bridge CS3	139 MB 1,442 Files 343 Folders	This is a file manager substitute which allows you to add a description and rating (metadata) to each file. This directory increases its size with use. This is probably worth keeping
Adobe Contribute CS3	110 MB 4,514 Files 626 Folders	Not worth keeping
Adobe Device Central CS3	100 MB 1,049 Files 288 Folders	This is used to develop and test Flash movies for cell phones. Not worth loading ... but it does allow you to compare phones if you are looking to buy a new one.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3	209 MB 9,095 Files 746 Folders	I code web pages in notepad. This has no value to me.
Adobe Encore CS3	2.99 GB 3,419 Files 353 Folders
Adobe Extension Manager	12.6 MB 49 Files 8 Folders
Adobe Fireworks CS3	175 MB 1,907 Files 348 Folders
Adobe Flash CS3	344 MB 3,205 Files 541 Folders
Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder	32.2 MB 960 Files 289 Folders
Adobe Illustrator CS3	488 MB 2,063 Files 419 Folders
Adobe InDesign CS3	219 MB 1,497 Files 348 Folders
Adobe Photoshop CS3	301 MB 2,004 Files 371 Folders
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3	651 MB 3,681 Files 442 Folders
Adobe Soundbooth CS3	299 MB 2,394 Files 310 Folders
Adobe Soundbooth Scores	3.08 GB 1,914 Files 67 Folders	I will keep this on the remote drive
Adobe Stock Photos CS3	8.5 MB 607 Files 26 Folders	Tool to help you buy $300 images. Has no value for me.

The z-drive was formatted ntfs, the size in the table is "space used on disk" which is usually larger than "space required". However, this is the value you need to make an informed decision.

Size on C-Drive

Application Data	149 MB 1,035 Files 233 Folders	This is stored in a hidden directory on the c-drive C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Adobe
Flash Help Files	148 MB 8,579 Files 91 Folders	I don't get it, the Flash help is stored on MY computer as html files, but it is displayed in a fairly lame browser. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\ Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS3
Common Files	1.17 GB 36,443 Files 1,502 Folders	You would think that all of their icons would be in here. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe

The c-drive was formatted ntfs, the size in the table is "space used on disk" which is usually larger than "space required". However, this is the value you need to make an informed decision.

Acrobat Re-Install

I removed Acrobat because it made my system unusable when the USB drive was missing. However, to accurately complete the tables above, I re-installed it ... what a mess.

Re-installation took about 1.5 hours
Boujour was restarted (repaired) - I had disabled this
There was no option to install Acrobat on another dirve
It took 1 hr 22 min to verify the system before asking for the Acrobat DVD, it only took 12 minutes to install Acrobat
During this, there was a status display showing
```
   Disc Progress: Disk n of 5
```
However, there are only 4 DVD's

I can't believe that this wasted 1 hour 34 minutes to perform a 12 minute load ... and I could not use the system for anything while this was occurring (IE must not be open).

Now, everytime I right click any file in Windows Explorer, I have to wait for the USB drive to restart. This is because there are two acrobat selections in the the pop-up menu.

I am no longer able to remove the USB drive - Windows says that it is in use. Using Processes Explorer, there are 3 active Acrobat dll's. (I searched for all active dll's on the z-drive.)

explorer.exe  z:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat Elements\ContextMenu.dll
spoolsv.exe   z:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\adistres.dll
iexplore.exe  z:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\AcrolEFavClient.dll

spoolsv got me curious ... from notepad, when I try to print, Adobe PDF is now an option. In fact, it appears to be available for all applications. On the one hand, this is pretty cool ... but on the other hand, it cripples my system. In fact, CS3 is already using over 1 GB on the c-drive, why doesn't it place these there also?

Coming back from standby, Windows Explorer hung ... this problem went away after removing Acrobat ... now it is back.

On re-boot, this was running

Z:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Acrotray.exe

and using 5 dll's on the USB drive. There was no indication of this on the desktop. There is a Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional icon on the desktop (I never allow programs to create these when there is an option).

The next step is to deactivate CS3, then uninstall it, then to load only Flash and Soundbooth on the c-drive. Details will be recorded on Part 3.

Other Sites

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression and think that I am the only one upset with Abode's CS3 installation.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 is Pure Crap!: CS3 would not install on 3 different Vista systems (posted 10-08-07). Lots of details, malformed xml, this person finally gave up.
Google search for install problems: There are lots of these.

Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org