Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop CS Upgrade (Windows)

This would be a fantastic upgrade if it weren't for the activation requirement. I work from several locations on three computers (including my mom's -- she has no clue how to use it), and I'd like to install the product on all three computers, including a laptop. Activation, of course, prevents this.

Keep version 7 if you have it. The enhancements for the most part (except for text) won't be missed.

I will say that Adobe's activation policy is many times better than Quark's, and they do have a good customer service team that might cut you some slack. This version is the best ever, but my advice is to just say no to activation.

I ordered my upgrade from Amazon.com, feeling certain that Adobe would continue to provide high quality software. Yes, it's premium-priced, but it's always been worth it. So worth it that while I waited for the package to arrive, I downloaded the tryout program.

Right from the start, I had problems. (And before I go any further, let me just say that this is not a resources issue. I have more than enough RAM, disk space and power to run this puppy.) It took forever to install and a long time to boot up. Finally I got it up and running, changed a few settings, including telling it where to look for my filters and plug-ins, shut it down and rebooted. And it refused to start. Told me a file was missing. So I tried again. Same error message. I reinstalled per their instructions. Booted up. Another crash, same error message. I don't really know how a file can be missing if I've just installed it.

So I uninstalled everything, reinstalled (This is installation #3. It's going on an hour and a half now, between the download and the installation issues) and booted up. No problem. I pointed the program to my plug-ins directory, shut down and rebooted. Guess what? Yup, crashed on boot-up again, and again I got the file missing message. Long story short: Photoshop CS won't use or even recognize any of my plug-ins from PS7. None.

While it offers nothing new in the way of its own filters, the plug-in gallery is a nice touch and too long in coming. Unfortunately if I have more than about 10Mb of images open doing anything in the gallery crashes the program. I'm sure there ae a lot of wonderful features in this program, but judging by my own experiences with the try out, and the customer reviews (I should have read them before ordering!) I can tell you that the package is going back as soon as it arrives. And if Adobe doesn't get its act together, it's lost me as a customer. And I've been a devoted user since PShop3.

I purchased this software not knowing that Adobe had implemented an activation scheme into this version of Photoshop. By the time I realized it, the software was already installing. Since the software was opened, I couldn't return it.

I downloaded several new feature articles from Adobe's website before I purchased this product and none of them mentioned the newly added activation procedure. If I had known that Adobe had added activation to this product, I wouldn't have bought it and opted to stay with version 7. I really hope a lot of people complain to Adobe about this because the only people that will be inconvenienced by this will be the legit users who actually purchased the software. The pirates will soon have versions of Photoshop CS with the activation disabled to freely swap around-just like they do with Microsoft products right now.

I'm not against companies trying to protect their property rights, but punishing its paying customers is not the way to go about doing it. If (like Adobe claims) activation will save the company millions of dollars a year that would be lost to piracy, then can we expect the savings to be passed on to us? Will future Adobe products cost half what they cost now? Don't hold your breath. Adobe is turning into another Microsoft-punishing its loyal paying customers while letting the criminals go free.

I'm in a predicament because I need Photoshop to work. There just isn't another image editing software package that is as good or as widely supported. However, the company I work for started making the switch from Quark XPress to Adobe InDesign a little over a year ago. I'm going to do everything in my power to switch the company back to Quark and dump InDesign. Hey Adobe, you might have us on Photoshop, but we can still find other alternatives for page layout and illustration software! Add to that the fact that I'm also going to opt to stay with Photoshop 7 even though I purchased the CS upgrade. Version 7 will be the last version of Photoshop for me and the company I work for as long as Adobe puts activation into any of its software.

When I did have Photoshop CS installed on my system I noticed that it took extremely long to load. The splash screen stays up for at least 60 seconds before the program will open. When it did finally open, I noticed that some of the tools in the tool bar were blocked out and there were lines running through some of the palettes. After doing some research on the internet I've concluded that there is an incompatibility between my graphics card and Photoshop CS. I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce3. I would suggest that you check your hardware for compatibility before purchasing this upgrade.

The one-star rating here reflects my answer to the question "Should you pay the money to upgrade to this product if you have an earlier version of PhotoShop"?

My answer is no, unless you need direct RAW support, which is about the only major feature that might worth the price. Otherwise, the new features are nothing really indispensible. (At first look, you probably won't notice ANY new features.)

And then there is the Nazi-esque product activation scheme. Just say no to software that does this! It's a hassle and it is completely unnecessary. Consider the fact that "cracked" versions of PhotoShop CS appeared worldwide on P2P networks even before the product hit the shelves, and you've got a draconian activation scheme that only causes a lot of hassle for the honest people. All that money spent on development of a pain-in-the-butt scheme that was immediately cracked anyway. It's futile and pointless.

I am a professional photographer, and, though I came to this page planning on buying PS-8/CS I just bought PS-7 instead ( I am currently using PS-6.5).

Having used PS since V2 I have found that getting every other upgrade has been the most satisfactory way to go. Until V4 the real strength and utility of PS was in its ability to make excellent color separations (for ultimate printing on a press). It has never been a state of the art image editor, and until V4, was not even a decent one.

PS-6 was the first version I was happy with both for editing, and for pre-press. PS-7 did not add much, so was going to skip it for PS-8.

Instead of PS-8 we get PS-CS which has valuable new tools in it (I wanted it for the "patch tool" alone!), but which has more problems than new features.

As do many of the other commenters, I do not like software activation. Computers are fragile, MS-Windows even more so - but, unfortunately - the only new, fast, and affordable programs are written for Windows. So, if you are counting on a Windows system, you better have a backup system (or two). I have four computers that I am actively using at the moment (3 desktops and a portable) - but, as I only use one at a time, I certainly do not feel that I am violating any of my software licenses by having a program installed on all four (though, with PS, I actually have different versions installed on each of the computers).

I also do not like WinXP (It was recently installed at my office). Of my personal computers one runs W2K, two W98, and one Linux/Lindows. Software written for any WinVer except for XP will run on Lindows (albeit more slowly) and it is ever so much more stable - Though W2K/NT3("5") - is actually quite good. My feeling is that is one of the main reasons the new versions of Adobe products are written to XP (yes, I do think there is a close relationship between Adobe & MS).

But. Having said all that, I would have bought XP just so that I could run PS-CS except for the deal breaker: Plug-In incompatibility.

Years ago I was trying to decide which 35mm camera system to go with. I had pretty well decided on Canon when they announced what was to be their THIRD lens mount system in 8 years: the old lenses would not work (or would not autofocus) on the new system. So, I went with Nikon - virtually any Nikkor lens made will work with the newest Nikon camera. When you've spent tens of thousands of dollars on lenses, the cost of a camera body is insignificant: you just want some assurance that you can use your existing lenses!!

Likewise with Plug-Ins. I have spent thousands of dollars on PS Plug-Ins. Why? Well, some make repetitive actions (such as repairing damaged jpgs, creased photos) quick and easy; others do things that are very difficult or impossible to do by "hand" (converting an image to only black and white - not the greyscale of B&W photos - with an acceptable loss of image quality); some are just fun (like adding crepuscular rays of light, or mist).

So. To "upgrade" to PS-CS would mean 1) a new OS (with all the attendant driver problems and incompatibilities, and weeks spent getting the system stabilized and working again); 2) at least $2000 to replace my existing Plug-Ins (IF they still exist).

Not a good deal for me, I can afford neither the time nor the money. So I bought a used PS-7 from a (poorly rated) Amazon Partner instead. I know it will be my last PS update ever - unless Adobe has an interest in retaining old customers ...