Monday, December 16, 2013

How to install Adobe CS2 free suite of products

Recently I stumbled upon Adobe's free download of CS2 suite of products and shared on social media. That suite includes:
  • Photoshop
  • Acrobat
  • InDesign
  • InCopy
  • Premiere Pro
  • Illustrator
  • GoLive
  • Audition
  • After Effects
Friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, people in my circles on Google+... all contributed their feedback. Nobody flat out hated my update. However, while most liked, favorited, rebloged, retweeted and reshared on their most valued social media channels, some people remained sceptical about the freebie. I'm not sure why. Was it a "too good to be true" syndrome, fear of the unknown, solid attempt to find and focus on that one Nnnnnegative aspect of the whole thing? I'm not too sure. 

The most common feedback revolved around alleged fine print somewhere online that claimed necessity of purchasing a license for that free download from Adobe. I saw blog posts about that in upper 1000's of words where authors copied & pasted (allegedly) Adobe's short announcement. Authors would continue rambling about all possible legal ends of things, and after several lengthy paragraphs without definite conclusions, they would end their spiel stating that an install of the software wasn't even attempted.

I, on the other hand, attempted to install free Adobe CS2 software - not on one, not on 2 but on 4 unique operating systems: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Mac OS X Mavericks. 

No purchase was necessary as promised by Adobe, and as expected. 


3 success stories. 4th installation ended with a prompt about lack of support for PowerPC applications on my latest version of Mac OS X (I believe you'd need a version prior to 10.7 for this free Adobe CS2 installation to work).

I'm using Adobe Creative Suite CS2 as my guinea pig. If you wanted to start enjoying Adobe CS2 package on your machine (or you wanted to verify my installation routine), follow there steps:
  1. Prepare installation files
    1. Download from https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads
    2. On Windows, extract CreativeSuiteCS2Disc1.exe,
      CreativeSuiteCS2Disc2.exe and CreativeSuiteCS2Disc3.exe
      into the same destination directory by double-clicking each of them and following prompts
      1. For Windows XP and Windows 7. used C:\CS2\Creative Suite CS2\, but you can extract that stuff anywhere
      2. On my Windows 8 machine I actually installed that software straight from a shared location on my home network
      3. The extraction process should create a folder named "Adobe Creative Suite 2.0"
    3. On Mac, open CS_20_IE_NonRet_D1.dmg.binCS_20_IE_NonRet_D2.dmg.bin
       and CS_20_IE_NonRet_D3.dmg.bin to expand them 
      Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation Expand CS_20_IE_NonRet_D1.dmg.bin, CS_20_IE_NonRet_D2.dmg.bin and CS_20_IE_NonRet_D3.dmg.bin files
      Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation
      Expand .bin files
    4. Start the installation process:
      1. On Windows, double-click setup.exe from "Adobe Creative Suite 2.0" directory
      2. On Mac open CS_20_IE_NonRet_D1.dmgCS_20_IE_NonRet_D2.dmg and CS_20_IE_NonRet_D3.dmg. Then, double-click Adobe Installer icon in Adobe Creative Suite Disk 1. That's as far as you'll go if you're Mac is up-to-date. Adobe CS2 is a PowerPC software package no longer supported by Mac after version 10.7 (released to public on July 20th, 2011).
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation open .dmg files to mount them
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation
        Open .dmg files

         
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation. Double-click Adobe Installer
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation
        Double-click Adobe Installer
         
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation Not supported by 10.7 and later versions  due to lack of support for PowerPC
        Mac OS X Mavericks. Adobe CS2 installation
        Not supported by 10.7 and later versions
         due to lack of support for PowerPC

  2. Continue if you're on Windows or Mac OS 10.6.9 or earlier by providing name and a serial number  
    Windows 8. Adobe CS2 installation - Personalization. Enter your name and serial number provided
    Windows 8. Adobe CS2 installation - Personalization
  3. Set the installation path and hit Next 
    Windows 8. Adobe CS2 installation - Location - this is where your application is going to live
    Windows 8. Adobe CS2 installation - Location
  4. Pick what to install and hit Next 
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation Pick what to install and hit Next
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Pick what to install and hit Next

    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Installation Options
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Pick what to install and hit Next
  5. Review installation summary and click Install  
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Installation Summary
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Review summary and click Install. Go Back if necessary.
  6. Register the product 
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Register the product
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Register the product

    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Registration
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Register the product
  7. Check for updates 
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Optional. Check for updates
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Optional. Check for updates



    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Check for updates
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Optional. Check for updates




  8. Set preferences of Adobe Updater on Windows 7
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Optional. Set updater preferences
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Optional. Set updater preferences
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Adobe Updater
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Most likely you will see the same prompt.
    No Updates Available

    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Optional. Set updater preferences
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation

    Optional. Set updater preferences


    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Adobe Updater
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Adobe Updater
  9. Check out what's been added to your tiles or start menu 
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - ExtendScript Tool added to the main Start Menu
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    ExtendScript Tool added to the main Start Menu

    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Adobe folders and shortcuts added to All Programs section of Start Menu
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Adobe folders and shortcuts added 
    to All Programs section of Start Menu

    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Adobe tiles added to home screen
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Adobe tiles added to home screen



  10. Reorganize things shortcuts, buttons and tile groups if necessary 
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Feel free to reorganize Adobe shortcuts in the Start Menu
    Windows 7. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Free free to reorganize Adobe shortcuts in the Start Menu


    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - Reorganize Adobe tiles one home screen
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    Free free to reorganize Adobe tiles one home screen

    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation - I strongly suggest creating and labeling a group of tiles recently added to your home screen as Adobe CS2
    Windows 8. Free Adobe CS2 installation
    I strongly suggest creating and labeling a group of tiles 
    just added to your home screen as Adobe CS2
  11. Run one of the applications installed
  12. Enjoy the freebie
As you can see from successful operations above, free Adobe CS2 software is in fact free and it will serve you well on Windows and on a Mac OS X (if you're on a version earlier than 10.7). CS2 may be several years old, but that software still allows for faster, easier and more productive use of your time while working on documents, images, web content or audio. I'm not implying that you must install it on your machine; all I'm saying is that if you need basic features of Adobe CS software, and you're ok with an older (but still useful) piece of software, free Adobe CS2 is a legitimate, valid and good alternative.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Adobe gives out its CS2 software for free

Early this year, Adobe decided to lend a helping hand to those who would like to dabble with their software at home, but don't want to deal with "reader" versions or trimmed functionality of trial applications. 


Both Chromebook or Firefox OS won't work here, but if you're on a Mac or Windows, Adobe offers a lot for you:
  • Installation instructions
  • Mountable deployment packages for Mac and Windows discs
  • Extras
  • Video training materials
  • Installation troubleshooting guides
Adobe CS2 Free Download
Adobe CS2 Free Download
To get to those Adobe CS2 Downloads, click this link. Just in case, the full URL/address to the download page is https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads.




There's a quite a bit of software to choose from:
  • Acrobat Pro 7.0
  • Photoshop CS2
All you really need to do to get ALL of those goodies, is to create an Adobe Account (just as if you were setting up a new account on any other online portal or a shopping cart (no payment info necessary). Let me know if you run into any issues during the process, I may be able to help. Good luck! 

If you're still reading, stop! Just go to the CS2 download page and start downloading, installing and enjoying some really powerful software for free. Don't be bashful, get creative!