Removing older versions of Photoshop?

[KerryMac]

I have 4 different versions of Photoshop on my computer as a result of upgrades. Yep, PS CS, CS2, CS3 and now CS4 are sitting on my hard drive.
I want to remove the older versions, but I'm not sure if that would mess up the most recent.
Does anyone know the answer? Do they build on one another? Do you have to leave all of them on the computer?
I'd love to clear up my hard drive a bit but I'd hate to mess up my Photoshop!
Thanks!

[hguenthe]

Sorry Kerry, I am not sure. I have ended up just leaving mine as well.

I believe that they are standalone as their installation just is checking for a serial number not other files however, you never know with the operating system what it will remove in the removal without an uninstall feature from the product maker. Looking through Adobe's knowledge base, there appear to be a lot of entries on different errors (mainly Windows) people have encountered so I would suggest you contact Adobe and ask them and have them guide you through it.

I do know though that with CS4, Adobe has begun to think about this and includes an Uninstall feature for it which I have done and reinstalled with no problems at all. (Just if you ever have to uninstall the CS4 and reinstall it - make sure to deactivate it & remove the serial number from your computer as prompted so that it allows you to reactivate it easily)

I ended up having to uninstall and reinstall it last weekend with my other computer access problems and it was the simplest of everything to do and went smoothly once I made sure to deactivate & remove serial number.

If you do remove the older versions, be sure to take down their serial numbers and keep them in a safe place in case you ever need them. Buying upgrades, those serial numbers become gold if you ever need them later down the road.

[cheska99]

In answer to your first question, I am pretty sure you can delete them, but if you still have doubts, the place to go is adobe.com. Their forums are excellent and you'll get a good answer soon. BUT, your post reminds me that when I upgraded to CS4, I needed not just my license number from CS3 but also CS! Hold on to those license numbers!

[kari]

my fear is losing actions, styles, brushes if I don't get them moved from one versions to the other... should I be concerned?

[hguenthe]

Not 100% sure on that Kari. I know that I had to manually move Noiseware when I upgraded so that I didn't lose it but I think some of my stuff moved over with it but a lot I just load when using it so not sure. I think that my actions I have written moved over but I may have had to reload Katie's drop shadow styles. I keep mine backed up outside of the Photoshop hierarchy in case that ever happens.

[Kirsty85]

I have both CS3 and CS4 on my system, and I refuse to delete CS3 until I am 100% comfortable using the new one.