12.03.2009.
Basic deactivation
Let's start with the basics. So far, anyone who downloaded a not-so-legit version of any piece of CS4 encountered the same problem. In all cases, regardless of information provided by the group that released the torrent, the software somehow managed to phone home, realize it's using an illegal serial number, and commit suicide. All apps die, request a new serial, and never run again. That is, until you kill them thoroughly, purge them, re-install, and try again.
How does CS4 phone home? It uses several services, some obvious and some less so, of which all at some time or another try to verify the number used to register the software. Two of the most notorious ones are Adobe Licensing Service, which is needed to run the programs, but takes them online afterwards and checks the situation out. The other one is Adobe Updater, an absolutely sinister program which will run in the background whenever it gets the chance. The CS4 apps themselves are not as evil as the services using them to get online. So, how do we get around the basic verification? Here's a step by step.
1. Completely KILL windows firewall and TURN OFF EVERY ASPECT OF IT. It is FULL of back doors and bugs, and WILL expose your PC to threats Microsoft wants to expose you to. Sure, it'll stop some, but why not stop them all? Furthermore, Microsoft struck a deal (or blackmail, whatever you may call it) with most big software production companies – from game studios to giants like Adobe - and uses the loopholes in its own firewall to help those applications check their serial numbers and other factors indicating illegal use. The big software companies in turn give birth only to software which works on a specific SP, by which they force the end user to upgrade to a higher SP even if nothing was wrong with his previous installation. A very sneaky way of getting you to install more back doors. Get ZoneAlarm 7+. One of the best firewalls out there right now, and is PACKED with options you'll need to run CS4 properly.
2. Once you have Zonealarm, and a piece of CS4 downloaded (or the entire CS4 for that matter) make sure there's a keygen somewhere in there. Also, turn off your antivirus, as there is a 99% chance of it scoring a false positive on virus detection in the keygen. Nothing to worry about. 97% of the keygens that cause false positives have NOTHING to do with viruses.
3. The next step is to kill your internet connection before you start installing. Disable your network, or better yet, just push the LOCK button in ZoneAlarm. Anything, just prevent your PC from going online for the next hour or two. This is not an absolutely required step if you have ZA7+, but it might help prevent some problems. It's better just to do it and get it all over with properly.
4. Run the installation. Whether it's CS4, Photoshop alone, Indesign, whatever, run the installation. Use your key generator to make a serial, and install the software. While it's installing, it's time to tweak your hosts file. The hosts file is a file inside the Windows/System32/Drivers/Etc/ folder, and, in our case, is very useful. To find out about its original use, google it or check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file. Anyway, find it and open it with a text editor (wordpad or notepad). Add the following lines under the line 127.0.0.1 localhost:
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
What does this do? It basically prevents CS4 (or your computer in general) from talking to ANY of these servers (these are all servers used to identify Adobe's apps and their serials – all data regarding verification is sent to those). With these in the hosts file, CS4 will not be able to contact the basic and main activation servers. After you added those, save the file, but make sure it has NO extension. If your text editor won't let you save it without an extension, save it as hosts.txt or hosts.doc and just rename them – delete the extension. Make sure you have known file extensions visible the entire time (go to Tools – Folder Options – View and remove the tick for „Hide extensions for known file types“). This is a very important and absolutely unavoidable step.
5. When the application is done installing, choose Register Later if it asks and run it. In most cases, it will run fine and won't ask a thing. Close it, and run it again. It will ask for internet access even though your connection is still down (it is, right?). Tick „Remember“ and choose „Deny“. Now, some apps might ask you whether or not you'll let Adobe Licensing Service „talk“ to them. You gotta. If you kill that service, no apps will work. So yeah, let'em. Some apps might also ask you if they can access rundll32.exe. Absolutely NOT. Deny and remember. Close the application, and run it a few more times to see what happens, whether or not you get some more questions. If you're not sure about a choice, try it. Try deny first (do not tick remember) and see if it runs and works. If it does, close the application and run it again, then tick remember and deny. If it doesn't work, well then allow it. Simple enough, we're giving the apps only the basics they need to function properly. Don't worry, this won't slow them down or disable any options, it will actually make them load much faster because they won't be choked by all the activation checks. Do this process with ALL of your CS4 apps if you installed more than one.
Once the application(s) no longer ask for any permissions, check the next post for all the things you need to do in ZoneAlarm to block the most crucial components.
