iLEMONed

We all know that various other components which we don't really need, are bundled with Adobe CS3 products. These few days I came across a little bit and I would like to share my experience with you. So here's a couple tips about having a customized installation. I'll take Photoshop CS3 for examples, the tricks should also apply to other individual CS3 products such as Dreamweaver, Flash, or Illustrator.

Pre-serialization and Suppression

Automatically enter your serial number during installation process.

1. Create a blank text file using (e.g.) Notepad
2. Ctrl+c/v or type the following:
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Configuration>
   <Payload>
   <Data key="Serial" protected="0">1234xxxx5678yyyy4321zzzz</Data>
   <Data key="Registration">Suppress</Data>
   <Data key="EULA">Suppress</Data>
   <Data key="Updates">Suppress</Data>
   </Payload>
   </Configuration>

3. Save as "application.xml.override"
4. Put it into "payloads\AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume\"
5. Run setup.exe and have fun.

To Choose Components during Installation

Add an "Options" step to installation/uninstallation process.

1. Open folder "payloads\AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume\"
2. Open the file "AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume.proxy.xml"
3. Search for "<Requires>" (at line #1770)
4. Delete the whole "<Requires>...</Requires>"
5. Save
6. Run setup.exe and have fun

These components are required or recommended:

• Adobe Anchor Service CS3
  The annoying "Bonjour" service and the licensing service.
  "Bonjour" (C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe) can be disabled manually after the installation but DON'T you delete it! The other one is needed to license the running of the application.
• Adobe Color Common Settings
• Adobe Color NA Recommended Settings
• Adobe Type Support
  You need this to add new text layers to existing PSD files which already contain text layers.
• Adobe Version Cue CS3 Client
  The "Open file" dialog gets errors without this component.

Note: If you're having Web Standard / Premium or Design Standard / Premium instead of stand-alone Photoshop/Dreamweaver/etc., please read this official PDF document carefully to find out the differences of the above two tricks.

Fixing an Installation Error

If you're seeing this error right after the initialization of setup process:

1. Press "Win+R" to launch "Run"
2. Enter "cmd" to open the command-line window
3. Type in "Regsvr32 C:\windows\system32\jscript.dll"
4. Type in "Regsvr32 C:\windows\system32\vbscript.dll"
5. Run setup.exe and have fun

What a beautiful icon Louie Mantia brought us!

Grabbed Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Windows, it was an SSG release. As they said in the nfo, their keygen generates VLKs so no activation is needed. Okay okay no more piracy talk.

Installation took more than 5 minutes to finish, I didn't get a chance to choose which components to install. What's worse, the un-installation refused to let me remove components I don't want! I'm not sure if there are parameters for setup.exe but anyway this is considered rude and compelling! As for CS2, the only way (I know) to prevent components that I don't like to get installed, is to delete some of the setup files. And I will try the same trick later.

Update: I made it, by editing an xml script. Now I can choose which components to install.

The app loads pretty fast and it's not sucking as much memory as CS2 does. I've been loving the new interface since its beta. This is the best version of photoshop ever.