I know it’s been forever since I’ve made an entry here. I’m quite busy and don’t have a lot to say here. But I’ve been having annoying issues with Adobe CS3 products and finally found a solution so thought I’d get it out there.

I have DW CS3 and thought I’d upgrade my Photoshop to CS3 to take advantage of some of the new tools in it. Well, what a mistake. I had nothing but trouble with that darn program - PS, that is. I kept having freezes and crashes. So, I thought I’d just uninstall it and put it on my XP machine instead of the Vista laptop I use 98% of the time.

First, be aware that when installing on Vista, you may run into issues with an error code 2738. The fix for this is:

Start - All Programs - Accessories

Right-click on Command prompt and choose Run as Administrator. This is important.

in the command prompt type:  regsvr32 vbscript.dll   and hit enter.

When the command has run you can close the cmd window. This will allow you to run the installer program for Adobe CS3.

So - when trying to uninstall PS CS3, I could not find any uninstall part to the program. I also looked in the Control Panel , Programs - to remove it, but it would not uninstall. I read somewhere I might need to use the installation disk to do a repair/reinstall, then I’ll be able to uninstall it. yeh- I know, a real pain. So this brought me back to the command prompt thing - I had to run that again in order to get to where I could uninstall the darn thing. It finally worked but ever since then I continue to get an Adobe Updater error whenever I start up Dreameaver CS3.

I figured it had to be related to this uninstall - a remnant of some kind. I didn’t want to get into registry business and really screw things up. So for weeks I hunted and hunted the forums and couldn’t find much - except a lot of angry folks going thru the same thing. I did find out where the culprit was - just not how to fix it. The culprit is the Adobe Updater 5 - and it was recommended to run the updater5.exe and change the preferences to manual instead of auto update. Well, the updater5.exe was broken!!!

The Updater5.exe is located in  Programs/Common Files/Adobe/Updater5

Fortunately, I have DW CS3 on my desktop, too - so I copied over the Updater5 directory (first I renamed the old one, just in case) and was able to run the updater program.  And guess what I found - it was trying to update PS CS3 - which I no longer had, but registry remnants must still be there (even after running a registry cleaner). I deleted those updates from the list, clicked on the Preference link and turned off the auto updater. I opened DW and the nasty updater error was gone!

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. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve started out 2008 with a system recharge: business is picking up and so is the cold season. Even though I tend not to go out among the public very often, I still managed to pick up the latest cold virus incarnation. I don’t get discouraged by it, I consider it an opportunity for the immune system to readjust. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, am I alone in feeling tired of this whole My Space phenomenon?

Maybe it’s my age, but it sure feels like the kindergarten let out early. The self promotion and virtual social hangout is silly. How nice that you have so many friends. Who cares? Aren’t you busy enough with real life?

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I wandered about the pages out of curiosity thinking maybe I’d get a page to promote what I do. After all, it’s the “savvy” thing to do, right? So, I signed up. Then what? Did I really want to spend all that time building one of those awful layouts and have complete strangers want to be my friend? I don’t think so. Guess I’m not ready for that.

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So, I continue to participate over at Yahoo Answers as a form of payback for all the help I’ve gotten from more advanced geeks. My focus is in the Programming and Design area of Computers and Internet. And what do I find? Every other question is from one of those MySpacers wanting help with a layout. Now, if My Space was so friendly, why does it seem so difficult to build a decent page over there?

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I am self-taught in computers and web design. I use the Internet to find resources. I dig until I get what I need in the terminology to which I most relate. It’s what I consider to be normal curiosity and self-reliance. To repay the generosity of countless people who have shared their knowledge and experience in my quest, I hang out at Yahoo Answers. I answer questions in a sincere attempt to help folks are who genuinely frustrated and don’t know where to turn. But I’m bewildered at how many people are just plain lazy.

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Unfair? No. It would take a person more time to write out the answer, which is already available by basic search engine magic, than it would take the asker to do it for themselves. There are hundreds if not thousands of young people using Answers to have others do their homework for them. Whatever happened to cracking the books open? Good Grief. The entire Internet is available. I never had all that information at my disposal when I was in school. To think what I could have accomplished with all that!

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One insightful Answers participant suggested computers are making people lazy. Perhaps. But if one is curious and has any measure of self-reliance, it is not in their nature to be lazy. It’s true that thousands of youth live in a virtual reality most of the time. Virtual friends, virtual identity, virtual games, virtual pets, virtual sex, virtual emotions. Virtual living.

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If you wonder what people are thinking about, visit Yahoo Answers. It’s virtually entertaining.