Photoshop cs3 portable

[Kamilah]

question: can a portable verison of photoshop cs3 be used from a lets say 2 gig or 4 gig flash drive? thank you for all help

[Doug Nelson]

In Windows, I doubt it. Photoshop has a very convoluted install, with zero opportunity to specify directories past the main install directory (ie: it would probably work on the initial install computer, but not on any others). On the Mac, I have no idea at all.

However, Photoshop Express can be used from any web browser.

[Liasson]

I think that Photoshop can be loaded on 2 computers, (i.e. work and home pc's or a mac also.) At least when I was working, I was able to load on both without a problem. I don't think it's portable though, if you mean can you put it on a flash drive and put the flash into any computer you use along the way. Nope, don't think so. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

[Joel23]

Originally Posted by Kamilah

question: can a portable verison of photoshop cs3 be used from a lets say 2 gig or 4 gig flash drive? thank you for all help

Yes. But you need a software like MojoPac
Mojopac installs a clean virtual XP on the stick (~500MB) within minutes from your existing XP, which starts on any computer you use the stick than. Install PS in this "virtual machine" and here it goes. Be aware you might need a second serial for XP, but not sure. Better ask this in the community over there.
XP and Mac only so far.

[Liasson]

Adobe registers not only the serial number but also the IP address. Just recently, my second machine crashed and I tried to load it on a new one and it didn't let me.I had to go through a bunch of red tape to get it back onto my new pc.

[Vernon]

For what it's worth, I took my copy of Photoshop and with the help of a friend who owns VMWare ThinAPP, was able to "thinstall" it into a self-contained version which now resides on my blackberry's memory card.
At a 164MEGS it functions pretty good - and depending on the machine to which I happen to connect my blackberry, PCS3 runs relatively well, with occasional slow start-up.

Note: Thinstall is not cheap (6K to 8K per copy) and may not be a justifiable expense, just to have a portable version of CS3.

So to answer your question, it is possible to make your copy portable, but it will not be cheap.

[Joel23]

Originally Posted by Liasson

Adobe registers not only the serial number but also the IP address. Just recently, my second machine crashed and I tried to load it on a new one and it didn't let me.I had to go through a bunch of red tape to get it back onto my new pc.

Well, for sure its not like this ;-) No software vendor would do that resp. should do that, because lots of users got dynamical IP-adresses assigned by their providers.
Usually there will be a machine dependend resp. harddisk dependend code generated and used.
Quoting Adobe:

Do I have to reactivate if I reformat my hard drive?
As long as you don't perform a "low-level" reformat of your hard drive, you will not be required to reactivate your Adobe software. Please note that utilities (provided by the operating system vendor) typically used for reformatting the hard drive do not perform a "low-level" reformat.

Unless you computer crashes you would be able to deactivate PS and install it on another one.