[@Peter Blaise]

>”Adobe Creative Suite CS 2 with Acrobat Pro 8.0 is available free, do a web search for a download with license”

The Adobe activation servers have been turned off for Adobe Create Suite through at least CS3, so at most, you can use the software no more than the first 30 days (the amount of time before the program has to be activated). So it doesn’t matter if it’s free or paid for, you cannot expect to use it for very long. There are sellers on eBay and even “cracks” advertised but all they offer is the key that is used to install the software. The important part is when your 30 days are up and you have to activate the license.

If anyone can explain how to activate the software successfully, it would be appreciated. I have a fully licensed unused copy I recently tried activating, and through web-searches found that it cannot be done.

[@Joao]

You will not recieve second email – the webpage will tell you you already have it and you should let some for other users…

Hi [ @Ashraf],

No.

If a program does not work as delivered through SOS, then no, I am not going to seek out the vendor, it’s their job to deliver a working program, not my job to make it work for them.

As it is, we feel like beta testers for so many programs, and that’s fine so long as we get current programs, real programs to review, and the vendor participates and works things through with us here on the open threads, and incorporates solutions into their next version, also made available here, “… See what you made me do? You make me make my software better, thank you, SOS folks! …”

This is 2017 software, not even current, and not even a trail.

Most vendors giveaway their old versions to tease us to get addicted and get us to upgrade to their new, current versions.

Since this is not even a trail, I can’t even try it.

I just tried the SOS Englemann Soft-Xpansion PDF 9 Editor download sequence again from another computer using another email and got the same banging-my-head-on-a-brick-wall results

– the number SOS gives fails,

– and then Soft-Xpansion fails to offer any functional avenue to fix it,

– or even open as a trial.

Thanks for trying, but the vendor has their feedback, it’s up to them to fix things and move on:

– turn off all locks an open as a trial with registration via menu pull-downs fro within a working program.

Yeah, after all this I do not even have a trail to check out.

Thanks, but you all have my feedback.

Use it wisely, it’s based on hard wrought experience from probably before some of these programmers and marketing bean counters and brick-wall-builders were even born.

Please respect the incredibly savvy and goodwill offered by SOS visitors, we speak truths that vendors ignore at their peril.

– – – – – – – – – –

PS – I just went to [ Soft-Xpansion. com ] to see if they offered a trial, after arduous steps, they sent an email with a trial download, it opened, claimed I already had it installed ( it saw the brick-wall failure ) and said I’d have to uninstall it, then it exited, not even offering to uninstall it for me, and not even offering to install the trial next to the prior version – how blitheringly stupid can they get? I do not mean to be insulting, but really … by now, if I’m going to uninstall anything, now after the third attempt to install anything, what is my motivation to re-install anything from Soft-Xpansion, instead of uninstalling everything of theirs and move on in life?

As I wrote folks, don’t download, rip it out if you accidentally installed anything, move on, there are plenty of free and trial alternatives, alternatives that are way more mature, more current, and pain-free.
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I am connected to the Internet but the activation app says it can’t connect. I have deactivated firewall and antivirus. Any help would be appreciated.

[@Dark]

>”I am connected to the Internet but the activation app says it can’t connect. I have deactivated firewall and antivirus. Any help would be appreciated.”

I am sure you are connected to the Internet, but your basis for that is that your browser can access websites on the Internet. Browsers use the http and https protocol, but programs attempting to activate software usually do not use http or https as the protocol. Even with your Firewall and Antivirus turned off, there are several reasons the Internet activation route may still fail. I wish developers would explain this better than “you must be connected to the Internet.” Thankfully, in this case, Soft Expansion offers an alternative. When you are prompted for the choice to choose “I want to activate my product via Internet” or “I want to activate my product via email” switch the radio button to the e-mail choice, then follow that route.

[@Peter Blaise]

I am sure that Ashraf is correct in thinking the problem might be on your end. Several of the comments are from people that were successful in installing, activating, and running the software. It seems to work as it claims. You should try it again; you are missing out on one of the better ones we have seen being offered at SoS.

If your computer is having issues installing the software and others are able to successfully install the software without issues, why do you think Soft Xpansion is to blame?

If you still cannot install the software, get a good computer tech to install it for you, and also check out your system to see why it cannot install the software. It doesn’t matter if the computer tech is older or younger than the programmers of the software; it is what the tech knows and whether they can diagnose a system that matters, and they should know the difference between a trail and a trial.

As for your response to Gene, getting the Adobepdf.dll file in the right place is only the first step. Regardless of being able to install the Adobe Creative Suite, there is no way to activate Adobe Create Suite CD3 or CS2 or below (and probably other versions). Adobe will not accept phone call activation either. Effectively, Adobe has been able to turn those older versions into a subscription that has ended. I think it is very wrong because they were not purchased as subscriptions; they were purchased with the expectation they would work indefinitely the same way they were originally distributed. I have no quarrels with Adobe not having free updates or upgrades on those earlier versions, but they should not have killed them totally. If Soft Xpansion ever follows a similar route, I will be just as outspoken.

Thanks [@Gary], but not only am I a computer tech ( whatever that means to anyone – someone who is 20 minutes ahead of their customers in reading the owner’s manuals? ), but as I wrote, I tried a variety of computers and a variety of downloads from SOS, AND I tried downloads directly from the vendor, the failure was ONLY at the vendor’s authorization brick wall or telling me I have to do something else, and then the program installation self-exiting, at which point, I stopped and moved on, agreeing with others here that this was not working, and especially letting others know of alternatives.

Even the so-called trial will not install as a trial, as I already wrote.

I do not fix vendors.

I told them what to do, and I’ve moved on.

My directions to Soft-Xpansion are:
– turn off all locks,
– open as a trial,
– register via menu pull-downs from within a working program.

I can’t even test drive to see if I want to pursue climbing over their brick wall for a license WHICH SOS SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED IN THE GIVEAWAY.

And locking the license into computer hardware is so mainframe.

End users are their customers, individual people, not corporate owners of mainframes, not computer hardware.
___________

If anyone here can share how they got it working, great … what, nobody can share how they got it working, oh my.

You wrote “… Thankfully, in this case, Soft Expansion offers an alternative. When you are prompted for the choice to choose “I want to activate my product via Internet” or “I want to activate my product via email” switch the radio button to the e-mail choice, then follow that route …”

So, did you try that route, email?

No?

I’m shocked, SHOCKED!
__________

You wrote “… Proceed through the remaining steps until you get to the activation page asking if you want to activate via the Internet or by e-mail. Either way, Soft Xpansion needs to know what the hardware key is for your computer [ … because they have trust issues that we can’t overcome, they have put themselves behind a brick wall of their own construction ]. They will send the 16-digit key to their servers to activate the program [ How can they send us anything when they do not have our email address? We’re at a popup window that dead-ends with no ability to contact them, period. ]. You will need to enter the 8-digit license key that was displayed to you on the download page and also sent to you in an e-mail. When the program has been activated, you will be told …”

No, the 8-digit number does nothing, and so we will never be told anything … BUT me telling people to rip this snit out of our computers and never look back.

… and you wrote “… Take another look at the reference to a 16-digit code. Nowhere does the offer state that a 16-digit code WILL BE SENT TO YOU. Instead, it refers to a 16-digit code that will be sent to them (Soft Xpansion) when you register/activate the software [ … which we cannot do ]. The 16-digit code is the “Hardware key” for your computer [ … because they have trust issues that we can’t overcome, they are behind a brick wall of their own construction ]. The software is licensed per computer, so that is how they know which computer matches up with the e-mail address. Soft Xpansion is stating that the hardware key is the only thing that is sent to them (no other information is needed). The 8 digit code is the correct one to use for activation. Hope that helps …”

But we can’t get there, so, no it does not help.

I know, you’re shocked – SHOCKED!

Did you try it?

How on earth is Soft-Xpansion going to get ANYTHING sent from my computer if neither SOS nor Soft-Xpansion is sending ANYTHING to Soft-Xpansion from my computer?

Hence the brick wall.
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Adobe released self-authenticating lifetime licenses along with final program installations for CS Creative Suite programs including Acrobat Pro with OCR, and offered them to ANY [ Adobe. com ] registered users, no purchase necessary, and those work just fine, because they know there is no home to phone home to.

I presumed DC stood for Downloaded to Computer … does Adobe make ANYTHING that actually workes on a computer that does not connect our wallet to the Internet and $Adobe$ $Cloud$?
__________

Thanks for trying, and I know Ashraf has no idea what vendor attitudes are, and the vendors have no idea who we are – oh, did the vendor not write in here to participate with us?

I’m shocked – SHOCKED!

Actually, Soft-Xpansion did write “… If there are any questions on usage or activation, you can send your request to [ support@soft-xpansion. com ] If the activation “by internet” fails, your firewall is blocking the access to our activation center. In this case, please send your product key and your hardware code ( you can see it in the activation dialog at “activation by mail” ) to [ support@soft-xpansion. com ] …” … what, that was not in the SOS license page and email, ever, even after it was a known problem?

Soft-Xpansion depends on a porous computer connection over the Internet, a serious no-no, and as a fall-back, they want us to cobble together an email from desperate and varied resources ( hand typing, which increases errors ~25% according to systems analysts who study this stuff, the difference between typing, and copy-and-pasting, or merely forwarding ).

But their email address, and whatever number they want, are not cut-and-pastable from the same screen, and so we have to manually cobble together an email from a variety of sources and or hand-typing, all for a program that supposedly is so smart that it can … wait a minute, if these programmers can’t even cobble together their own required email, then what can the programmers do?

I dunno.

And they won’t let me find out.

They can’t even get a trial working, either, so … why bother?
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