Upgrade ??

Ok. Im finally replacing the '03 Dell desktop and also upgrading from CS2 to CS5. I just got home and have not even opened the boxes yet. The new computer has Windows 7 which I have no experience with yet. My question for now, is there anything I really need to know (watch out for) before I load CS2 and start my upgrade.

Bruce

I don't believe you'll have to load CS2 to perform the upgrade. I think all you need is the key number from it. I'm no computer whiz by any means though, but I think I remember that from when I upgraded from PS6 to CS2.

I believe Bill is correct. You do not need to load CS2 but you will need the key number for it.

If the CS2 key number doesn't work for some reason, simply having the CS2 disk in one drive while installing CS5 in the other drive will be sufficient.

I just bought a new computer and had to re-install Photoshop. They way I did it was to deactivate the program on my old computer. This is IMPORTANT as Adobe keeps track of how many installs you have activated. When I installed on the new computer I had to enter the serial number of the previous version. Make sure that you can indeed upgrade from CS2 to CS5. They do limit the number of revisions you can skip and still get the upgrade price.

If you haven't deactivated CS2, do so before you install CS5 on the new computer. If you old computer bit the dust, as happened to me, you have to call Adobe and explain the situation to them. They were very nice and made the correction fast.

Good luck You won't believe the improvements from CS2 to CS5, nor the learning curve you will embark on.

" Make sure that you can indeed upgrade from CS2 to CS5. They do limit the number of revisions you can skip and still get the upgrade price."

Good point! Fortunately, CS2 makes it just under the wire.

First thanks for all the replys so far. The reason for the computer upgrade at this time is that the old one is dead. Well actually just critically ill. The harddrive did not die but will not boot up. I searches all the drives for one to boot from. It worked one day when I used photoshop and the next day my wife went to do some bookkeeping work and it would not boot. It was old enough that we had been talking about a new one anyway. I will be taking the old PC to my Brother-in-Law to see if he can get it going so I can retreive some things off of it. It also has a second hard drive that I used only as a working and storage drive for photos and of course there are photos that I had not backed up to the external drives yet. That drive will be put into the new PC as a second drive also. On the software I knew that CS2 was the last version that could use the upgrade so I wanted to do that and needed the new computer to be able to use CS5 due to system requirements.

Another question. My laptop does not have enough RAM to run CS5 so is there any problem on Adobe end for me leaving CS2 on it and putting CS5 on the desktop?

Bruce

Have fun with Windows 7. I was in the same situation a couple weeks ago. I opted to go with Windows 7 instead of XP, and while I think it will be worth it, my frustration with Win 7 was extremely high the first couple of days and still is somewhat. Once I explained the hard drive crash to Adobe, they reset the number of installs for me.

I'm going to ask a question, and hopefully somebody will have the answer for both of us :). Is there a master preference so that directories will come up in list or detail form instead of defaulting to icon? This is one of those things that is totally irritating me.

"My laptop does not have enough RAM to run CS5 so is there any problem on Adobe end for me leaving CS2 on it and putting CS5 on the desktop?"

I'm no expert, but I sincerely doubt you'll have a problem if you purchase CS5. In fact, they won't even know about it.

Hey Rob,
You may want to start a new topic as this one is falling further down the chain.

Thanks John. That's kind of what I was thinking

Bruce