PhotoShop Elements 6 - Serial Number Confirmation Routine

baumgrenze · 24 Apr 2019

I know that PhotoShop Elements 6 is 'outdated' (unsupported) software, but it has served me well under Win7 and it is familiar, I can do many simple tasks without checking help.

Recently during an image editing session a box dropped down and announced "your license to use this software has expired" (or words to that effect) and suddenly I could not use any program features. I couldn't even save my most recent work. I found my installation disk and uninstalled and reinstalled the program. It refused to recognize my serial number as valid.

I was about to pull the plug on the program last night. I still had the disk in the CD drive and decided to try the 'repair' option which was the default. The 'install' routine that opened claimed there was 'no disk in the drive' but the message was superimposed on the familiar splash screen opening PSE6. Wonder of wonders the program was available in the Start Menu and it seems to work like always.

Is there a routine somewhere in the software that periodically triggers a check of the serial number? If so, is there a way to disable it without otherwise compromising the running of the program? If possible, I'd like to keep it running without having to resort to this 'opaque' process of repairing the installation. I don't understand how it worked, but it did.

Sorry, Adobe, but I have no interest in a pay-by-the-month subscription to a 'cloudy' version of your photo editing software, something with its own steep learning curve, when there are open source editors that I understand will allow me to continue to edit images as effectively as PSE6.

I'd appreciate comments from anyone who is more familiar with how a program like this 'works,'

thanks
baumgrenze

MourningStar · 24 Apr 2019

Turn off the internet before you use it. I'm no geek, but maybe there is a way to stop the program from 'seeing' the internet?

Barman58 · 24 Apr 2019

Photoshop Elements 6 is very old software, [in computer terms], so old in fact that adobe has removed the licence servers from use. The software is reported to be working fine on Windows 10 x64 so it should not have an issue working on Windows 7.

You may be seeing the issues just due to the fact that the Disk is old and may not read well in modern hardware. There are later versions of PSE available up to the Latest 2019 version -

there are no plans, that I know of to incorporate the PSE software in the Adobe Professional software suites that are only available as a subscription.

Easy Photo & Video Editing Software | Adobe Elements 2019 Family

You may be able to find a more recent copy of PSE in Craigslist or other older software stores which should be totally OK to purchase as long as you get the disk and key together

baumgrenze · 24 Apr 2019

Thanks to you both for your suggestions.

Everything seems to be working again for now. It appears that the move to Windows 10 x64 should not impact this.

My concern is that I don't understand how and why Adobe decided to check my serial number and freeze a session. Also I have no idea how I got the program working again if I get 'dropped' a second time.

It was my hope that someone wiser would be able to paint a clearer picture.

I did get out of this experience the notion that Affinity Photo might be another, lower cost alternative to PSE 2019. I tried searching the forum and found no references here. Am I missing something obvious?

thanks again,
baumgrenze

Barman58 · 25 Apr 2019

If you are looking to change from elements there are a lot of options to choose Elements is a suite of functions so is not simple to simply replace like for like ...

If you are in a situation where you are working with professionals then the only answer is Photoshop or elements however if you are working with personal images then anything goes

The Gimp - is a totally free open source program that approaches Photoshop in Feature Set, to manage images there is Adobe Bridge which is, due to an old promise from Adobe totally free for personal use, if you have a need to create Greetings cards, fliers etc, there are a few specific applications or I personally suggest taking a look at Inkscape which is a free open source Vector editor All of these apps are current and regularly updated.

Using the above three applications should give you a replacement for Photoshop Elements for no cost, yes there is a learning curve to get used to the different layouts, (at one time there was a theme available for The Gimp that adjusted the layout to Photoshop style

baumgrenze · 25 Apr 2019

Thank you, Nigel, for persisting with me.

Now that I have PSE6 running again I will probably 'run it into the ground.'

With less than a year to reach 80, I still buy 'sort-of' green bananas, sometimes, but I'm increasingly aware of how precious time is. It is why I still use Win7, Office 2000 and other ancient, but known software.

Thanks for your help,
baumgrenze