Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. Installation and Troubleshooting

Elements is easy to install and is pretty trouble-free once it’s up and running. This appendix describes some things you can do to ensure a smooth installation, and provides cures for most of the little glitches that can crop up once you’re using the program.

Like printing, installing Elements works quite a bit differently depending on whether you have a Windows computer or a Mac. This is partly due to the differing ways PCs and Macs install programs. But another big difference is that, on a Mac, you get asked to create an Adobe ID (see Beyond This Book) during the installation process; the installer then registers your copy of Elements. In Windows, on the other hand, you create an Adobe ID when you run the program for the first time.

Regardless of what kind of computer you have, you need to install Elements when you’re logged into an administrator account on your machine. (If you’ve never done anything to change your account and there’s only one account on your computer, it’s almost certainly an administrator account.) And for Elements 12, also need to have an active Internet connection when you install the program, or you won’t get past the “enter a serial number” step.

Note

If you have a previous version of Elements on your computer, you don’t need to remove it before installing Elements 12. All versions of Elements run completely separately, so you can keep older versions if you want.

Make sure you have your Elements serial number handy ...