Windows 7 & Photoshop CS3 compatibility

[mongo]

Mongo is using CS3 (extended) on windows XP quite happily.
Mongo has to buy a new computer which will be Windows 7 operating system instead.
Mongo has heard very bad things about Windows 7 and CS3 not getting on together at all.
Can anyone help tell Mongo whether this is true and to what extent BEFORE he buys a new computer. Mongo does not want to buy into new problems. Any help will be much appreciated and is time sensitive.

thanks

[I @ M]

Can't help you with the CS3 side of things Mongo but from reasonably recent experience with a new/rebuilt PC here Windows 7 is a good thing. The one piece of advice that I heeded when upgrading was to buy the "professional" 64 bit version. Apparently it works better in some areas over the "home" editions.

[mongo]

thanks Andrew. That seems to be a common theme Mongo has also heard may help but not sure it will cure the potential problems as such.

[pjc]

I do not have any personal experience with CS3 on Win7 but a quick Google reveals that there indeed does seem to be a lot of trouble reported out there, eg, http://forums.adobe.com/thread/572923

Perhaps Mongo needs to also update to CS5? $$$$

[PerfectPicture]

Robert says he needs more information from Mongo to provide a quality assessment!.
Photoshop CS3 works great for older style architecture. e.g. my 2006 Hp Laptop with max 1GB Ram. Photoshop CS3 runs perfectly. CS4, needed a minimum of 2GB+.
What O.S. is the new version of Windows 7? is it 32bit or 64 bit O.S?
Windows 7 32 bit version should run Photoshop cs3 fine, but limitations with 32 bit is it can only access a maximum of 3.5 GB of total RAm memory installed in the computer. Most new systems comes with a minimum of 4GB ram. (My laptop has 8GB Ram, thus was best to install 64-bit O.S. to access the full 8GB RAM!).
Also you need to look at compatibilities issues with Windows 7 64 bit Operating System, as Photoshop cs3 (a 32 bit program) might not work as well on it. not to say it totally won't, but you have to see if it installs correctly and works correctly on it as well.
By the way, Windows 7 Operating system is one of the best O.S. Microsoft has released, they seems to finally have gotten it right within Win7! :)

Other considerations Robert recommends is possibly upgrading to the newer version whether it be CS4 or CS5. you will get more & better functionality with the more advanced features the newer versions of photoshop has to offer and it will help you with your photoshopping needs.

OR alternatively you can run a VM Program Virtual Machine program to emulate the Win XP environment within windows 7.
l run this on my Laptop and its is Rock solid stable and run multiple VM Operating systems, from Windows 2003 server, Win XP, W2000, Macintosh O.S. SnowLeopard, Windows 7 32 bit, and various Linux and Unix O.S's as well. and run concurrently as well.

So to move in the 21st Century you needs the correct tools and programs for the job, exactly like you would for your photography peripheral needs as well.

Cheers

[mongo]

Sincere thanks to all of you for your advice.
Mongo's machine was to be an i7 with 8gb Ram, 2 gb nvidia graphics, windows 7 premium, (64 bit) etc. etc. just to try and answer one of your questions.
However, since then, Mongo tried a friend's D7000 and now finds his CS3 will not open the raw(NEF) files either even if he stay with his current computer but buys a new camera.

So, the whole business is a wrought - every time Mongo updates his computer it is highly likely he will need to replace software he is quite happy with and then learn to use it all over again; same if he buys a new camera. Not unhappy to buy CS5 but really did not need its capabilities to continue doing what Mongo is doing if it isn't for the ridiculous way we allow ourselves to be manipulated - particularly, it would appear by Adobe in this regard.

No point in changing to anything else at present because Mongo does not know which camera he wishes to buy in the very near future and that may, as ridiculous as it may sound, potentially decide the software he may need and even the computer to a large degree. Not even buying CS5 will guarantee any compatibility with either the computer or the camera software. Said it before - it's a lot of crock !!

thanks again for your assistance guys.

[jjphoto]

Yeah, pisses me off too. I'm not a fan of constantly upgrading software, in fact I hate it.

My main PC has CS2 and XP pro. I'm not looking forward to upgrading to win7 pro, just because I'm not sure which programs will die, like my CS2 and various minor but useful utilities.

JJ

[PerfectPicture]

That all said ...
Robert Says ... This doesn't necessarily mean it WON'T WORK, if the Photoshop CS3 is a legitimate copy of the program and has all the full files structure in place, installation on a new Operating System Should not technically cause any issues, as long as the program structure is stable upon installation it should work fine. l would suggest during installation, Select Custom installation and you can select and choose if you want to have either or BOTH Photoshop CS3 32 Bit version and 64-bit version.
On my laptop running i7 Win7 64bit 8Gb RAM, 1GB Video Ram, etc ; l installed BOTH CS5 32 bit and 64bit, and of course the 64 bit version runs much faster upon loading and image mergers, panorama creations, running scripts, etc. Because it is optimised for the Operating system and utilising the run bandwidth of the 64-bit architecture.

Additional Note, you can also download for FREE the adobe Camera RAW installation package which l think the latest version is v6.3.
just a quick search, found this > HERE (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html) and bottom of text it states compatibility issues with Adobe RAW and Nikon (known issues), that links to HERE (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/nikonraw.html). Of course with Canon's *.CR2 files there are no issues at all.
l believe the Adobe Camera RAW can run independently within or possibly not requiring Photoshop to load? Unless you want it to.
Thus have full creativity functionality available to you within the Adobe Camera RAW package.
As they say RAW RULES and is very powerful in your imaging post processing steps, which l still need to learn heaps about ... :)

Robert additional suggests, you can always shoot Adobe an email directly with your current and new architecture hardware specifications and state you would like to run CS3 on Windows 7 and if any known compatibility issues with it and/or helpful guides to assist you with stable installation.
OR alternatively Robert also suggests go to Whirlpool and do a forum lookup or new post thread as well, they are quite helpful and you might find a current thread already answering your questions on this issue, as they are bunch of tech heads there.

l agree, the monopoly of Software companies like Adobe demanding or software pushing people to force upgrades can be a very expensive and time consuming task!
Side note : I bought a Brand New Honda Sports Car in 2000, does that also mean l have to upgrade my Car every year because they release a new Model!? hmmm

Robert Says ... Life is but a Journey of Living and Learning , and you need to have Fun along the Way !!!~ :)

[mongo]

Again, a big thanks to JJphoto and a particularly big thanks to you Robert for providing so much useful info in this time of Mongo’s desperate technical need.

Mongo is slowly getting over the headaches and disappointment and starting to concentrate on the task at hand and Robert has provided some workable directions for that to hopefully happen. It isn’t so much the money of the upgrades (for extra capabilities that Mongo does not need or want) , it is far more about the all the incredible bother associated with it. That is why Mongo hates getting a new computer etc – is so much trouble and disruption (and even uncertainty a lot of the time about the end result).

Decided to get the new computer and press on. Maybe even upgrade to CS5 in the hope it may be the last upgrade Mongo will ever need (but fat chance). Some of the help available through AP members has given Mongo some encouragement about that exercise and hope you do not mind if he has an extra question or two when he finally gets down to it.

In the interim, Mongo worked out that ViewNX 2 can read and manipulate the D7000 NEF images and can convert them to Tiff and then open in CS3 ACR as a stop gap measure. However, it is interesting to note what Robert said about possibly running a very late version of ACR as a stand alone program.

Lastly, Mongo likes and agrees with Robert’s sentiment that “Life is but a Journey of Living and Learning , and you need to have Fun along the Way !!!:) - too right !

Regards from a grateful Mongo