Photoshop CS2 Trial SMART installer - Can't outsmart it!

Hey all,

I thought I'd start this topic since I couldn't find a solution
currently available on the web.

I own adobe design collection (containing photoshop 7). I wanted to try
out the creative suite for myself. I ended up doing a lot of work in
InDesign CS2 and photoshop CS2. I then went on vacation for two weeks,
came back, found my trial had ended, and was unable to open up my
important files in my older adobe software. I thought all that I had to
do was whipe out my drive and then reinstall the trials so that I could
open my work and make my necessary changes. Not so easy!

Yes, I should just pay to upgrade my software. It's the most logical
solution to my problem. Well, I'm out of work and raking in scratch at
the moment so I'm too frustrated to take the route just yet!

My idea was to whipe out windows every 30 days and reinstal all of my
trials until I can afford CS2. But to my amazement, after reinsatlling
photoshop CS2, it was somehow able to see its past expired trial and
forced me to quit upon an attempt to get it running.

How did it know my 30 days were up as it existed in my past
installation of windows XP???

Was it sending a fingerprint of my hardware configuration over the net
to adobe's server and comparing it to my past configuration?

Did it embed some code deep in a designated sector of my harddrive?

Did it embed code in the installation files so that future
installations would have evidence of past use?

I'm far from a computer genious and I know nothing of the sophisticated
anti-hacking schemes that are written into software these days to
thwart would-be crackers from breaking their protection. I did attempt
to bypass all of the above senarios that could account for their clever
protection and was unable to bypass the trial experation. Here's what I
did:

*I resinstalled Windows XP SP1 after doing a long format on C:/
*I did NOT install any of my drivers (audio, video, LAN)
*The internet was not enabled
*My D:/ drive was disconnected in the case code was embedded there.
*I installed photoshop cs2 trial from a DVD-R freshly downloaded from
the web in the case that code was embedded in install files in the past

I did all these things and still PS-CS2 **KNEW** that I had used it in
the past on a previous OS and that my 30 days were up. HOW? Fresh new
hard drive, no ability to access the magic portal of the world wide
web, fresh install files, different hardware configuration. I'm
perplexed!!!!

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Photoshop CS2 Trial SMART installer - Cant outsmart it!
    ... > InDesign CS2 and photoshop CS2. ... > *I did NOT install any of my drivers ... > web, fresh install files, different hardware configuration. ...
    (alt.graphics.photoshop)
  • Re: Photoshop CS2 Trial SMART installer - Cant outsmart it!
    ... > InDesign CS2 and photoshop CS2. ... > *I did NOT install any of my drivers ... > web, fresh install files, different hardware configuration. ...
    (alt.graphics.photoshop)
  • Re: Disk space occupied by programs.
    ... PhotoShop CS2 takes up only 297.2MB. ... iPhoto is universal, Photoshop is not. ... It was a default install of the whole of CS2. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: XP so SLOOOOW...
    ... Did you reinstall Photoshop after install XP? ... You can easily change the fat32 drives to NTFS. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: HP Printers
    ... You need to be aware that Photoshop does not print ... |> document and uses the "Basic driver" to print with. ... Windows or MacOS? ... install the driver without the printer being on-line. ...
    (alt.graphics.photoshop)
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