Completely Uninstall Adobe CS3

If your job is to administer Macintosh computers, odds are that much of your time is spent working with Adobe's Creative Suite. And while many have been tempted to uninstall CS3 out of frustration, removing Creative Suite entirely can be an important troubleshooting step when faced with a corrupt, damaged, or expired installation.

The only way to completely remove Creative Suite 2 from a system is do so manually, using the list of CS2 files posted at Adobe's own support site. Unless you have a pressing need to continue using the older version, it's best to remove it before ever even installing CS3.

Loading Creative Suite 3, on the other hand, isn't always as easy as following a checklist. The installer can become convinced that some or all of the suite is already present, even when there isn't any usable software available. For this very reason, Adobe has a script to uninstall the Photoshop CS3 beta, the non-bundled version of Acrobat 8, or even just a previous install that somehow went wrong.

CS3Clean, once double-clicked, runs in the Terminal to remove every application, file, preference, and driver that might be preventing a fresh installation. The script offers three "levels" of cleaning, the first removing everything *but* Acrobat 8, the second removing all CS3-associated files, and a mysterious third option which isn't listed (or explained) but is often recommended by Adobe's phone support representatives.

The script also uninstalls CS3 in about 10% of the time the programs actually take to install initially. That means that rather than installing CS3 individually on the machines that require it, you can often save time by including Creative Suite in company-wide disk images, then removing it on the workstations where it isn't needed.

Recommended Reading: If you're considering a full uninstall procedure to merely address a licensing issue, check out how to reserialize Adobe CS3 instead at the CreativeTechs QuickTips blog.