Installing CS3, deleting CS3 beta

[Eric Brody]

I just purchased the CS3 upgrade for Windows. I used the CS3 beta and enjoyed getting a headstart on the new features. I am a bit nervous about the "real" CS3 installation though for those of us who used the beta. Adobe has on its website both a rather complex manual uninstall procedure, http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=kb401492, as well as a somewhat scary "CS3clean script" http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html with caveats about backing up one's entire hard drive prior to using it...

WARNING: Before running the CS3Clean Script, it is critical that you back up your hard drive including all data, content, software programs, etc. Failure to do so, and failure to follow the instructions below, could result in a loss of the contents of your hard drive.

I do back up my data files carefully, but do not back up the entire drive.

What have people been doing about installing the shipping version? Has anyone had a problem with the basic uninstaller? Has anyone used the manual uninstaller or the CS3clean script.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Eric

[Jack Flesher]

You on Mac or PC?

I am on PC (XP 32 Pro) and for two machines simply ran Add-Remove's uninstall, then installed the new software, piece of cake -- and all of my actions and preferences ported over and seem to be working fine. It is my understanding Mac users have to run the uninstall script from Adobe though.

FWIW, Adobe does recommend doing a Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Cmd+Opt+Shift) on first launch to clear the beta settings folder.

Cheers,

[Ben R]

The clean up script worked fine for me, I think they are just covering themselves, you will find that kind of warning on any registry cleaning software. Best thing to do is to make a Windows Restoration Point prior to doing it and go ahead, with the restoration you can time machine back if anything goes wrong.

[Greg Miller]

The normal add/remove programs process worked fine for me.

[Eric Brody]

I got my courage up, printed the instructions for the CS3clean script and went ahead following the steps. After running the uninstaller, it recommends deleting all preference files. I did that, went ahead, installed and ... it worked. I did not need to use the clean script.

Thanks to all.

Eric

[Ed Richards]

The fine print seems to say that the clean script is to address situations where the install of the release candidate fails after the removal of the beta. I deactived the beta, uninstalled it, deleted all files and folders with cs3 in the title, and then installed the new version. Worked fine. Bridge is still flaky in the release version.

[Ben R]

Bridge is still flaky in the release version.

You can say that again, slower than Bridge 1, crashes a lot, takes a couple of ages to make thumbnails even when set to quick thumbnail mode and tiny files.

[Eric Brody]

I agree that Bridge is problematic. I have had a problem selecting a group of images and trying to add metadata to them, such as my name and copyright info. It seems to add it to only one image, though all are selected. I wonder if anyone else is having similar problems, or whether we should start a new threat for Bridge issues.

Eric

[Ben R]

A few other problems are that it always reverts to the Desktop when starting, not the last used folder, Batch Rename doesn't start at '1' but rather the number after the number of photos to be renamed (if it is 5 files then the number will start at '6'). Thumbnails are not automatically updated with the appropriate Camera Raw settings until opened and even then only some times.

This is after just a week....

On the other hand the magnifying view and the whole general setup including ACR 4.0 which is truly wonderful to use, made me dump lightroom in a second (I was trialing it).

[Eric James]

Eric, I'm using CS3 and have not had problems adding meta data to multiple files.

Ben, I have not experienced any of these three problems that you decribe:

When reopening Bridge, it displays the contents of the last folder opened, not the desktop. Batch Rename initially starts at 1 for a group; when renaming a new group it starts with the first unused number, but this can be reset to 1. My thumbnails reflect Camera Raw settings and changes to default settings are quickly rendered.

I using CS3 for Mac; I never downloaded the beta version; I still have CS2 on my machine. I'd be glad to provide more information.

[Jack Flesher]

No problems noted yet with Bridge here, faster than CS2 for sure.

[Ben R]

Maybe it's because I'm on PC?

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

Has anyone installed the full version of CS3 and worked with Photoshop and InDesign? Is there really a vast improvement over CS2?