October 2009 Update: I’ve since installed CS3 on Vista and that has its own set of issues. The obvious is that you need to run as administrator. But there’s also sometimes an issue with a dll that will end up giving you “Error 2738 - unable to install.” To fix that, you need to open a cmd prompt as administrator. In Vista, you do this by clicking the start button (the round windows button lower left of your screen). Then, All Programs, then click Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt, and click “Run as Administrator.”  In the black dos-looking command prompt window, type:   regsvr32 vbscript.dll   (note the space in the middle) and hit your Enter key. When it’s done in a few seconds, close the window and try running the installation program again.

Back to original post about installation on XP stopping prematurely….

If you’ve found this in your desparate search for answers to why your upgrade to Dreamweaver CS3 just won’t install on XP, congratulations. I wish I’d found it myself. I tried all sorts of searches at Adobe and at their Forum but it took a call to the Support folks to find the right Tech Note … and even then it took some creative problem solving.  Update: looking for the technote?  try this: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402048.html

If you want to skip ahead and see what I think solved it for me, go to Solution 6 below.

First off, my system is XP Pro, service pack 2. My system meets the requirements. I bought an upgrade version at Adobe and downloaded the packed file. I unpacked to the desktop and let it run the installer. It ran the initialization process and then disappeared. In Task Manager, there was Setup.exe running away. Tried to stop it. Went into Control Panel Add/Remove and clicking there just froze it up. So I rebooted. Tried all sorts of things. I searched the net for answers. Tried selective startup. Nope.

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The answer at the Adobe Forum was to run the CS3 Cleanup utility. What this does is get rid of the halfway installed files so you can start the process over again. I ran this several times, after each failed attempt, hoping a clean slate would help. I also did the following just to be safe:

1. Ran spyware removal tools: Lavasoft and Search/Destroy.
2. Ran Registry Cleaner: I use Eusing’s Free Registry Cleaner.
3. Ran CCleaner.
4. Defragmented the hard drive.

Doing this did my PC good, but didn’t help with this problem. Then I called Support. There were no Dreamweaver engineers available, but I was told this is a common problem (really, Adobe? then why don’t you make your support area a little clearer about it) I was advised of some tech notes (some of which I already tried)  and about an hour later I was sent Tech Note 402048. Unfortunately, this tech note is not an obvious one if you search for answers at Adobe. So, just go get this one and save yourself some frustration.

It’s long and scary and it took me all the way to the end before I saw results … and I had to improvise. So, here goes with what I think actually worked. I indicate the Solution number from the Tech note. In the tech note, they say to try reinstalling after each solution. But it didn’t work for me until Solution 6. This sure made a long day. But, it was snowing like hell outside, so …

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Solution 1:  make sure you have the system requirements for the upgrade. Duh.

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Solution 2:  Create a new user account with administrator privileges. Don’t follow their instructions, just go into the Control Panel and create a new account.

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Solution 3:  This one probably helps, so follow the directions. There’s another tech note with better instructions: Tech note d2b5934. Use msconfig to do a selective startup routine. Turn off the Startup Items, turn off all services except the Microsoft ones that won’t let you turn them off, and I ticked on Windows Installer.

NOTE: there is a second part to this solution that may be important. It’s the part where you’re installing from the folder on the desktop. Since I extracted the files to the desktop already, I was okay. But I took this solution literally and as it instructs, I created a folder called Adobe Install and moved the Adobe CS3 folder into it. So, on the desktop is Adobe Install/AdobeCS3/Setup.exe

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Solution 4:  This has you going into a javascript file and changing a line. I copied the original line to another text file in case I wanted to change it back, which I did. So this solution did not make a difference in my case.

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Solution 5:  Uninstall Google Desktop. I wasn’t even aware I had google desktop. But I followed the instructions and saw that there was some google stuff going on.

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Solution 6:  This is the good part and probably was the answer all along. IE. Ah yes, Internet Explorer once again causes problems. This solution has you disabling all the AddOns that are not Microsoft. To take effect, you restart IE. Okay. Tried installing again. That didn’t do it. Then the solution says to Reset Web Settings. Ok. Did that, closed IE. Tried reinstalling. Didn’t work.

On a hunch, I reopened IE, selected Yes when it asked for “Make Default Browser.” Closed it. Tried running the Setup.exe file from the desktop folder and whadya know. It actually started to install. I held my breathe. But it worked. Apparently, I needed to restart IE for those last changes to take effect. Just closing it isn’t enough. And maybe selecting it as my default browser did something, too. I dunno.

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Now for the test. I logged into my main account and it was there and it let me activate and register.

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Now, while I’m so happy I got this to work, I’m still really annoyed with Adobe for not providing more accessible information and not offering some kind of compensation for this trouble, which is happening quite a bit. This has wasted an entire day. On top of that, I’ve tried to go back to the Forum to reply and they’re down for maintenance.

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