Early CS3 adopter and reader Tom Dwyer is less than happy about the Adobe CS3 installer. He writes:
Because I downloaded and installed the [Photoshop] beta it took me 5 hours to load Adobe CS3, but now I can’t load Adobe’s upgrade even after uninstalling CS3.
I sympathize, Tom. In preparation for reviewing Adobe Soundbooth I installed first the publicly available beta and then a later reviewers beta. And, like you, I struggled far more than I should have to install a more recent version of the program.
I wish installing CS3 over a beta was as simple as running the Installer application, but it’s not (but it should be). You first have to get rid of the old beta (and its remnants) and this is not done by simply dragging the beta version to the Trash. Instead, follow these steps:
Before attempting to install the new version of CS3, travel to Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers and run the Installer (or Add or Remove application, if that’s what you find there). Follow its instructions to remove any CS3 components on your Mac.
Now go to yourusername /Library/Preferences and trash any files or folders that belong to the beta (folders with CS3 in the name or obviously belong to one of the CS3 betas). Then move to the /Library/Application Support/Adobe folder and delete files and folders that are similarly associated with CS3 or one of its betas.
Finally, download the Adobe CS3Clean Script. This script runs via Terminal and should clear out the last bits of the beta and allow you to successfully install the real version of CS3. Just follow the instructions provided in the Read Me document that’s bundled with the script.