How to install Photoshop 5.0LE on Windows7 64bit?

[Highdesertdweller]

Greetings, and new here.  Did a search but didn't come up with anything helpful, just a lot of very technical stuff.  I am very simply trying to use an old version of Photoshop 5.0LE that I got with a camera I bought on a new PC with Windows7 Pro 64bit.  I use Photoshop sparingly, but do on occasion and do not wish to purchase anything more elegant as I have no need and not much money.  I appreciate any help you might give.  I have heard there is a process but haven't been able to get it to even open the .exe file to try to install it.  I get a message something like "This version of Photoshop does not work with Windows7," (kinda makes me wonder why I even upgraded the OS since the XP Pro I had on my old machine worked very well with all my programs. Please help. Thanks. Highdesertdweller

[Highdesertdweller]

Done.  Thanks, Chris.

[John T Smith]

You answered yourself before I got here, but... http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter/using-windows-7s-xp-mode-step-by-step/

[Highdesertdweller]

John, I didn't answer myself, I was just responding to Chris, moderator on another forum here, who asked me to post my question here instead of where I initially posted it, which was on the "Installations" forum.

So, I still need more info.  I tried the compatibility mode approach in Windows7 but got nowhere.  Tried all the XP versions but came up empty. 

Curt, thanks for the tip on Elements, and I may have to do that but am really strapped and the $100, although not an arm or a leg, will definitely be a few fingers.

Noel, what do you mean "with the UAC turned off?"  Maybe I haven't tried that, but won't know until you tell me what UAC stands for and how to turn it off.  Sorry, not that savvy and appreciate your indulgence and patience.

[Highdesertdweller]

OK, did a quick search and found out what uac is and how to turn it off in 7, which is essentially to slide the slider all the way to the bottom of the range which I did.  Then, put my 5.0 LE in the drive, went to ENGLISH, then double clicked on every file in there because I wasn't sure which one was the setup file and there isn't an Autorun file.  None of the files opened the program, some gave me warnings that this program is not compatible with W7 and some asked to search for a program that would open the file on the internet.  I believe it is the setup application file.  In any case, the turning off of the uac didn't seem to help open the program but thanks for the suggestion.  Let me know if you find your 5.x version and if you're able to get it to load.  Thanks again.

[Guest]

The issue could be a RAM/HD size isse. The earlier programs got confused by RAM more than 1Gb or HDs larger that 100Gb as I recall. You should see if you can use 5LE to upgrade to PS Elements as suggested.

[Noel Carboni]

UAC is Windows User Account Control, which is a big reason why older software might end up being incompatible with the latest OS. 

Basically, in the "bad old" days, every application acted like it owned your entire computer, and modified anything and everything it saw fit.  Nowadays, by contrast, applications are supposed to install in certain places, then only make modifications and store data in user-specific places.

UAC is the Windows feature that asks you, during installs, whether you really want to allow an installer to make changes to the system, and it causes the redirection of some things that used to be at the system level to be stored in other, user-specific places.  It also causes your applications to be run without privileges, even though you may have added yourself as an Administrator.

UAC's folder redirection seems akin to "magic" and I've always felt it was a real hack job.

But in general UAC does protect people who don't really understand how everything works in Windows from a lot of malware, and - though Microsoft provides the ability to adjust the settings to facilitate greater compatibility with ancient apps - advising people to disable it has to be given with a disclaimer:

You should search for Windows User Account Control or just Windows UAC in Windows Help and online to learn what it does for you before choosing to disable it.

If you DO end up wanting to try disabling it to see if Adobe's old version will install, just click Start, type UAC in the search box, and click on Change User Account Control Settings when it comes up.  You'll need to reboot after the change.

Edit:  This seems out of order because it is; I had neglected to hit the Submit button.

-Noel

[Highdesertdweller]

Noel, thanks.....if you check my previous post, I had figured that one out already but do appreciate the added description you provide.  Basically, I may have made an error because I DID NOT reboot after turning UAC off.....are you saying that when you turn it off, you need to reboot in order for the feature to stop working and perhaps let me install my program after all?

[Jeff Arola]

I believe that the problem is probably the installer for photoshop 5 LE is not compatible with newer windows systems (vista and windows 7).

You'll be much happier with pse 10 anyway which is compatible with windows 7 and has more features than the LE version of photoshop.

For example if you have or plan to get a digital camera that shoots in the camera raw format, LE won't be able to even open those files and another big difference is the transform controls.

LE only has a couple of ways to transform like scale, but no perspective or distort which pse 10 does have.

The best thing to do is download the trial of pse 10 which is fully functional for 30 days and see if it meets your needs and you can often find pse 10 locally for better price than adobe offers.

[Noel Carboni]

Yes, but I thought it will tell you if you've made a change that absolutely requires a reboot to take effect.  It's been a while since I fooled with UAC settings.

-Noel

[Guest]

An inexpensive alternative to Photoshop  CS x is Photoshop Elements.   About $100 and has most of features, probably more than PS 5, and it is compatible with current operating systems.

[Noel Carboni]

Given that I've found Photoshop 6.0 works okay on Windows 7 without using XP Mode (but with UAC turned off), I wonder if 5.5 would...  Somewhere around here I have an old copy of that; maybe one day I'll try it.

-Noel

[financetech]

Hi,

you can copy across an old XP installation.

On an XP machine copy the Photoshop 5.0 LE program folder from C:\Program\Adobe onto a USB stick. Then also copy the all the DLLs from C:\Windows (there are usually 6 or so), and also copy pcdlib32.dll from C:\Windows\system32.

On the Windows 7 machine copy the Photoshop 5.0 LE folder from the USB stick across to C;\Program Files and also drop all the DLLs into the Photoshop folder.

On the Windows 7 machine in the Photoshop folder right click on photosle.exe and choose Properties - Compatibility tab and then choose "Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (service pack 3).

John