Erasing Photoshop and lightroom

[edgarangelone]

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I would like to ask this knowledgeable group a simple question. I have Photoshop 2, 3, 4, and now 5 and lightroom, 2 and now 3, could I erase the one's I am not using anymore without affecting the newest version?? For example, could I erase lightroom and lightroom 2 without compromising lightroom 3. Thank you for your advice.

 

Edgar

Edgar Angelone - Black and White Photography - Gelatin Silver and Platinum Prints

[hoppyman]

Hi Edgar, yes you can. Usually earlier versions are left intact when you do the next install but it is impossible to be specific about every combination of installs.

However it is possible that you may need to re-install your latest versions after the (earlier versions) removal if some settings/preferences are messed up. The sequence can affect that and it may vary with OS and whatever else you have installed too.

 

I recommend with the Photoshop installs that you deactivate the installations before removing the programs. Depending on what licence conditions you have (upgrades or full licences) you may be able to reinstall the earlier version/s on another machine if required.

Make sure that you have your installation media and licence details for the newest versions first of course. There's no activation per se with LR but it will affect Ps installs.

Once you have CS5 and LR3 in place you should synchronise the point updates for best interoperability too. Just makes sense.

[Shootist]

I agree with Hoppyman except in that the one time I installed the newest version of PS while the older one was still on my PC, CS3 to CS4 and then uninstalled the older version, CS3, I lost some of the file associations.

 

Also both times I've install the newer version while the older version was still on the computer the newer version picked up on some of my settings in ACR, Bridge and PS without moving those settings/option choices to the newer program, it just used the paths to those settings and options. Then uninstalling the older version the newer version lost those settings/option.

 

I would suspect it is OK to uninstall the version that are 2 behind the newest but for me I'm leaving the older version in place. It's just HDD space and not that much anyway.

[archi4]

If you have some plugins that don't work with CS5, it may be necessary to keep an earlier version, and even in some cases open it in Rosetta.

maurice

[hoppyman]

yes that is exactly what I referring to . I did forget to mention third party plug-ins though. You may need to talk to the providers as well. Some show too many activations, some require upgrade payment if you move to 64 bit. In the case of 64 bit Ps you end up with two versions installed of Ps5 anyway, (32 and 64)

If you get Ps as part of the CS5 suite (I use Design Standard) then there is more potential again for hiccups/complications with the installs. Video cards and drivers are another potential stumble as OpenGL compliance affects Ps 5 performance whereas with earlier versions it nearly did not matter at all what you had.

Personally having the earlier versions still on my machine resulted in confusion and I preferred to remove all of them.

I agree with Hoppyman except in that the one time I installed the newest version of PS while the older one was still on my PC, CS3 to CS4 and then uninstalled the older version, CS3, I lost some of the file associations.

 

Also both times I've install the newer version while the older version was still on the computer the newer version picked up on some of my settings in ACR, Bridge and PS without moving those settings/option choices to the newer program, it just used the paths to those settings and options. Then uninstalling the older version the newer version lost those settings/option.

 

I would suspect it is OK to uninstall the version that are 2 behind the newest but for me I'm leaving the older version in place. It's just HDD space and not that much anyway.

[edgarangelone]

Thank you all for you help. As I read all your message, I guess is easier for me just to keep the old versions. I am not a computer wizard, so the changes that I am going to create more problems than solutions is very high. I may try to move the old versions to an external hard drive and see what happens. In this way, I can always move the old version back to the computer if I need to. Once again, thank you.

 

Edgar

[jaapv]

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Uninstalling older versions might erase some register entries that are needed for the newer versions, either directly or later during a register clean. In that case you need to do a reinstall of the newest version. I would not delete them, but keep them, if necessary hidden from yourself by deleting no more than the shortcuts. Adobe keeps them in different folders anyway. I guess, if pressed, one could simply delete the folders from Program Files --> Adobe, but I have never tried that.