Virtualising Adobe Creative Suite with Mac OS X / OS X / macOS

Article ID = 115
Article Title = Virtualising Adobe Creative Suite with Mac OS X / OS X / macOS
Article Author(s) = Graham Needham (BH)
Article Created On = 27th February 2019
Article Last Updated = 19th November 2021
Article URL = https://www.macstrategy.com/article.php?115

Article Brief Description:
Instructions for virtualising Adobe Creative Suite with Mac OS X / OS X / macOS

Virtualising Adobe Creative Suite with Mac OS X / OS X / macOS

The ability to virtualise Adobe Creative Suite is important and very useful as it is an easy way to run these older 32-bit applications that do not run on macOS 10.15 or later. MacStrategy presents this special guide to running Adobe Creative Suite within a virtualised Mac OS X / OS X / macOS environment.

Virtualisation Software

Parallels Desktop [£69.99 inc VAT one time purchase - upgrades + 14 day free trial available]
Parallels Desktop Pro [£99.99 inc VAT yearly subscription - upgrades + 14 day free trial available]
VMWare Fusion Pro [US$199 inc VAT - 30 day free trial available]
Oracle VirtualBox [FREE - Open source under GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2]

Virtualise Mac OS X / OS X / macOS

You can consider virtualising:

However, we recommend running the following versions of macOS / OS X / Mac OS X as Virtual Machines for 32-bit app support:

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Server) - costs money but you may already be running/want to run this to be able to use PowerPC/Rosetta based applications
~~OS X 10.7~~ - OS X 10.8 is better
OS X 10.8 - costs money but if you already own it/want to pay for it, it runs very efficiently in a virtual machine and there are few internet/iCloud based services clogging it up
~~OS X 10.9~~ - was very kludgy and slow when installed on a hard disk
~~OS X 10.10~~ - was slow when installed on a hard disk, does not support latest Apple internet/iCloud based services
OS X 10.11 - free, supports most internet/iCloud based services
macOS 10.12 - free, supports most internet/iCloud based services
~~macOS 10.13~~ - buggy, slow, still being revised by Apple, 10.13.4 or later will give you repeated warnings when trying to run 32-bit applications
macOS 10.14 - but will give you repeated warnings when trying to run 32-bit applications

NOTE: As of September 2021 OS X 10.11 and earlier no longer supports the ISRG Root X1 root certificate. You can download an install the certificate manually.

NOTE: We have tested Adobe Creative Suite running in the following environments:

Mac mini (2014 model) with macOS 10.14 Mojave running in 64-bit only test mode and using Parallels Desktop 14.1.2, VMWare Fusion 11.0.2 and VirtualBox 6.0.4 with OS X 10.8.5
MacBook Pro 13" (Intel 2020 model) with macOS 12 Big Sur using Parallels Desktop 17.1.0 with macOS 10.12.6

WARNING!

19th November 2021 update: An issue that started in the summer of 2021 (around June) was that Apple's Safari and Adobe's activation software would no longer securely connect to servers in virtual machines running older versions of OS X. Safari reports: Safari can't open the page "xxx" because Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server "xxx". Adobe activation software reports that it cannot "connect" to their activation servers. This is the result of two separate problems:

As of September 2021 OS X 10.11 and earlier no longer supports the ISRG Root X1 root certificate. You can download an install the certificate manually. This affects Apple's operating system, Safari, and most browsers except Firefox.
Adobe's Creative Suite activation software only uses older Transport Layer Security connection methods. During 2021 Adobe killed off support for older versions of TLS (v1/v2) to connect to their servers. You now have to activate Adobe Creative Suite using the "offline activation" method.

Adobe Creative Suite 32-bit vs 64-bit

CS3 - all primary CS3 apps are 32-bit.
CS4 - Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects are 64-bit*, all other primary apps including InDesign are 32-bit
CS5 - Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects are 64-bit*, all other primary apps including InDesign are 32-bit
CS5.5 - Bridge, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects are 64-bit*, all other primary apps including InDesign are 32-bit
CS6.0 - Bridge, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects are 64-bit*, all other primary apps including InDesign are 32-bit

* But see this blog post.

Adobe Creative Suite

You can consider virtualising:

Adobe Creative Suite CS
Adobe Creative Suite CS2
Adobe Creative Suite CS3
Adobe Creative Suite CS4
Adobe Creative Suite CS5
Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5
Adobe Creative Suite CS6

However, you should note the following:

The online licensing servers for Adobe Creative Suite CS2/CS3 are no longer active. You will need a special version of the installer to install the software:

Adobe Creative Suite CS2
Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (Adobe ID required to obtain the download/new serial number)

Adobe Creative Suite CS4/CS5/CS5.5/CS6 activation now requires an Adobe ID because, as of mid to late 2021, Adobe Creative Suite CS4/CS5/CS5.5/CS6 automatic updates and online activation no longer work as Adobe have switched off TLS connection support for older protocols that these versions of the Creative Suite activation software uses to connect to Adobe's servers. You will need to activate your software using the "offline activation" method:

You need your original serial number and a computer/device with a web browser that can successfully and securely connect to Adobe's servers.
Install the Adobe software and when you get to the activation screen - click on the link that says "I cannot connect to the internet" or "Having trouble connecting to the internet".
Follow the instructions on the subsequent screen to initiate offline activation. Instructions there will tell you how to generate a Request Code.
Use an internet-enabled device to Generate a Response Code. Sign in with your Adobe ID and enter the machine specific Request Code as well as your product's serial number.
Make a note of the generated Response Code and enter the Response Code on the installation or launch product screen of your offline computer when you are prompted to complete the offline activation process.
Full instructions are on Adobe's website.

We do not recommend running the Adobe Acrobat Pro software that came with Creative Suite as all those old versions are no longer supported with security updates. If you must run Acrobat Pro consider installing a newer, supported version of Adobe Reader and setting PDF documents to automatically open it - see our Keeping Adobe Software Products Up-To-Date about this.

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Notes

The online licensing server for Adobe Creative Suite CS3 is no longer active - You will need a special version of the installer to install the software (Adobe ID required to obtain the download/new serial number)
Installing CS3 on macOS 10.12 Sierra or later may require a manual workaround to get it installed
Some Adobe CS3 applications erroneously report that they need Java to run - you can install Java 6 or trick OS X into thinking Java is installed
Adobe CS3 updates can no longer be installed automatically/easily - updates must be installed manually

Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Notes

Installing CS4 on macOS 10.12 Sierra or later may require a manual workaround to get it installed
Some Adobe CS4 applications erroneously report that they need Java to run - you can install Java 6 or trick OS X into thinking Java is installed
Adobe CS4 updates can no longer be installed automatically/easily - updates must be installed manually

Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Notes

Installing CS5 on macOS 10.12 Sierra or later may require a manual workaround to get it installed
When installing CS5 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariPlugInUpda" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariPlugInUpdateNotifier" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
When installing CS5 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariBookmarkS" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariBookmarkSyncAgent" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
Some Adobe CS5 applications erroneously report that they need Java to run - you can install Java 6 or trick OS X into thinking Java is installed
Adobe CS5 updates can no longer be installed automatically/easily - updates must be installed manually

Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5 Notes

Installing CS5.5 on macOS 10.12 Sierra or later may require a manual workaround to get it installed
When installing CS5.5 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariPlugInUpda" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariPlugInUpdateNotifier" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
When installing CS5.5 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariBookmarkS" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariBookmarkSyncAgent" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
Some Adobe CS5.5 applications erroneously report that they need Java to run - you can install Java 6 or trick OS X into thinking Java is installed
Adobe CS5.5 updates can no longer be installed automatically/easily - updates must be installed manually

Adobe Creative Suite CS6 Notes

Installing CS6 on macOS 10.12 Sierra or later may require a manual workaround to get it installed
When installing CS6 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariPlugInUpda" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariPlugInUpdateNotifier" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
When installing CS6 on some later versions of OS X / macOS you may get the message "Please close all of the following applications to continue: • SafariBookmarkS" - to do this, leave the installer running, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > CPU tab > click on "Process Name" heading to sort the process list alphabetically > locate "SafariBookmarkSyncAgent" in the list > select it > click the X button in the top left > click the "Force Quit" button > go back to the Adobe installer > click "Continue"
Some Adobe CS6 applications erroneously report that they need Java to run - you can install Java 6 or trick OS X into thinking Java is installed
Adobe CS6 updates can no longer be installed automatically/easily - updates must be installed manually

Useful Links

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