While I do appreciate this matter may not affect many of you currently, I think it's important we are all made aware that certain products you buy can potentially stop working if a company decides to flip a switch. If there is one, it isn't being communicated or broadcast clearly and understandably on their site or when reaching out to Adobe direct. During my time researching this issue, I've not been filled with confidence that a solution is available. In the case of Adobe, there must be a cost-effective solution that would allow users of older versions of Creative Suite to keep using them indefinitely. While I obviously am sympathetic to companies who have to consider the costs involved to indefinitely run close to antiquated servers, no paying customer should ever be left with a piece of functioning software they can no longer use. So, there you have it: the incredibly limited number of options available to you when it comes to keeping your older versions of Photoshop alive. I would personally file this option in the long-shot category, as there's no guarantee this approach currently works and even less chance of it working in several years' time. I have asked this very question twice to Adobe but have yet to receive an answer. The big question is if Adobe will still give response codes to users of the older Creative Suite 2, 3, or 4 which they have now retired the activation servers for. By logging into Adobe on a device that can connect to the Internet, you can fill in a form and generate a response code, which will help you finish the installation process. To give Adobe credit, the company has offered offline activation in the past for users who can't access the Internet on a particular machine. For those unfamiliar with the cloning of drives, this video is a great starting point to familiarize yourself with the process. By making copies of your drives while they have functioning versions of your Adobe programs, you'll always have the ability to 'rewind' back to that point in time and never need to 'phone home' to Adobe. The cloning of drives is not a bad habit to get into anyway, as it gives you another backup of your precious data.

This procedure is fairly straightforward and the costs are not too excessive.

The only real option available to ensure your older version of Photoshop will always work is if you clone the drives you currently have in your machine. This means if you decide to wipe your computer, change your operating system, or do a clean install of the software, you will run into trouble as you will no longer be able to access the activation servers that are needed to finish the new installation. If you want to hang onto Creative Suite 2, 3, or 4, the good news is if you already have it working on your machine, you won't have any issues until you need to reinstall it. So, What Options Are Available for Users of Older Versions of Creative Suite? This means if this machine ever needs my version of Photoshop CS4 reinstalled on it, I wouldn't be able to. Unfortunately, that machine has already reached its limitations in terms of upgrades. For those asking why I don't just upgrade that particular computer, my hands are rather tied, as additional hardware and a newer operating system would also need to be installed for the Adobe Suite to work on it. This version of the editor is still more than useable for my needs, and it would be a shame to lose it. I have an old laptop with Photoshop CS4 on it, which I very occasionally use when out in the field. There may only be a small group of users holding on to these older versions of Photoshop, but they should still be able to use the program they bought for as long as they want.

While I appreciate many will say a program that is more than 10 years old has had its day, why should any piece of software that still works suddenly cease to function just because a company no longer wants to run a server? The cynic in me feels like Adobe has no motivation to help this group of users as they have already had their money during the original purchase. Adobe stating that users can no longer reinstall Creative Suite 2, 3 or 4 due to the aging activation servers being retired.

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