software, software development, windows

Adobe CS3 won’t install

122 Comments

Users are complaining that Adobe Creative Suite 3 simply won’t install. I’m one of them, running 32-bit Vista Professional. Pop the DVD in, click Install CS3 Web Premium, setup starts running, then silently closes. No error message, no install either.

Of course I have tried a few things. I’m not the only one struggling: the Adobe user forums are full of similar problems. Note: similar but not identical. There appear to be multiple issues, and not just on Vista but on XP as well. Here are some popular solutions:

I’ve tried the first two without success so far, on two different machines. Next stop tech support.

It looks to me as if Adobe is having Windows Installer issues. Perhaps nobody had time to read and observe the Tao of the Windows Installer. Still, I reckon Adobe could do a better job with the error logging and reporting. There are installer logs by default in \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\, but mine have nothing helpful; no errors are reported. The Windows installer supports a detailed logging mode, but it seems difficult to enable with this particular installer. The calls to the installer itself are wrapped by some kind of Adobe package manager, and the .msi files are designed to prevent you from opening them directly.

Here’s what I get if I run setup from a command prompt:

Begin Adobe Setup
UI mode: Full GUI
End Adobe Setup. Exit code: 4

Hardly illuminating. If I do the silent mode, I get Exit code: 7 instead.

The bottom line is that I have no clue what is going wrong. Perhaps it is a campaign to promote the Mac version. I’ll keep you posted.

Update

I fixed it. First, the logging was more helpful than I realised at first. In the Installers folder mentioned above, there is a file called:

Add or Remove Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium 1.0.log.gz

I’d not looked at this because I also had a file called:

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium 1.0.log

It turns out that the former is more useful than the latter. Of course it is compressed in .gz format, which Vista does not understand, but the open source 7-zip archiver takes care of that. So I extracted the log and found this entry:

DEBUG: Error 2739: Could not access JavaScript runtime for custom action Internal Error 2739.

That gave me something to troubleshoot. I soon found this article which says to re-register JScript:

regsvr32 jscript.dll

from an administrator command prompt. I was away; the setup ran fine after that.

Incidentally I did call tech support, but the techie didn’t help directly; he asked me to email the log though, and it was looking at that which gave me the answer. Now I can get on with the review…

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122 thoughts on “Adobe CS3 won’t install”

  2. Thanks for this post. On Vista Business I had to run cmd.exe as administrator to run regsvr32 jscript.dll. CS3 Web Premium then installed and then had to be repaired. It now works. Much Appreciated.
    Regards Kate

  4. Thanks from me too!!! Been struggling with this issue for ages and now it is finally solved!!!!

  7. You know what’s funny? I saw this solution several hours ago and just totally dismissed it and carried on with my search. I feel like a complete fool now, but thank you SO much!

  9. Thank you for that I was going mad getting this to work on my Vista PC!!!

  11. You my dear sir are a godsend!! After struggling with this for about 3 hours and navigating Adobe’s suprisingly bad customer service website, I was about to give up. Thanks for posting. Its helped immeasurably!!

  12. Thnx Buddy.. Really Helpful.. that was the first time I really looked into why my application wasn’t installing and without u I would have been lost..

  13. Tim,
    Greatly appreciate your sleuthing to this simple solution. I had tried to install PS CS36x with no hint as to why it wouldn’t go. 30 sec spent registering and all is well. Why didn’t Adobe come up with this and post it?????????
    Thanks again. Bob

  14. Fantastic work! Works like a charm. I’ve been trying for a while to get this working and I could not understand what was going on. Thanks.

  16. funny thing is that i’m having similar problems with an OS X install… Still trying some things, but Adobe can’t seem to get their installers right anywhere. i think it’s probably because of all the different copy protection schemes they try, even though probably half of the students that go on to get jobs that pay for licenses steal if while in school.

  18. hi,
    have tried this but all i seem to get ‘regsvr32jscript.dll is not a recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or bathc file…

    i will try again

  21. I downloaded a fully legal copy of PPro CS3 last week. Staggers along on my P4 (with 2 gig of RAM) so decided to try it on my Laptop with Dual core processor and also 2 Gig and Vista Premium. Of cours it wouldn’t install ! That is until I ran the regsvr32 jscript.dll thingy.

    Why is it, I wonder, why Adobe, who produce some excellent software, just can’t seem to get it right!! Has anyone thought about TESTING down there?

    RichardM 24 years in PCs !!

  22. hmm, i’ve tried this method but it doesnt seem to wanna work for me. i’ve tried it with UAC on and off and still doesnt work. anyone else have similar problems? i’m on vista 32bit ultimate. anyone else have any ideas? and i did register that javascipt .dll file.

  23. hmm, i’ve tried this method but it doesnt seem to wanna work for me

    The more detail you give in describing the error or problem, the more likely it is that someone can help.
    Tim

  24. hm, well i still get this error:

    Begin Adobe Setup
    UI Mode: Full GUI
    End Adobe Setup. Exit Code: 4

    when i try to install it thru command prompt. i get the same error if i register that java .dll and if i use the command ‘setup.exe –record=1’ as well. if i just install it thru explorer by dbl-clicking on the exe, it just runs the process momentarily, then it disappears. and i’ve tried to run it with and without UAC, but that hasn’t made a difference. i’e also tried running it under admin rights, tho my default profile is admin. any ideas? sorry for being so vague last time…anymore details just ask.

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