I hate things that make my life difficult. Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 does just that. Its installer will not install the product on Windows Server 2003, which is what my desktop happens to be.
I argue that Windows Server 2003 is higher than Windows XP SP2 (for many uses of the word “high”).
This crap drives me nuts. I can see a company saying that they don’t want to support their product on certain OSes, but just tell people “This is an unsupported OS and we will not help you when you have problems.” Then give them the option to install anyhow. Sometimes I can cheat and have Windows run apps in “compatibility mode” where it pretends to be XP. Not in this case. I’d really like to know what 2003 can’t do that XP can (aside from report that it’s Windows XP).
I guess I’ll be seeing what my options are tomorrow morning, since it’s clear I didn’t check the system requirements prior to acquiring the software. In the meantime I’ve plugged the DV camera in to my Mac, and guess what? No bullshit for the import.
You know what Adobe is going to have to do when Vista comes out? Release a new installer. That won’t be a hassle at all. Say that the product actually won’t work on Vista. At least if the installer wasn’t brain dead you could have the users install the product and then download a patch to make the application work right. Way easier than having to go get new install media.
Well, it imports with no problem on the Mac, but iMovie, IMHO, leaves a bit to be desired (but, then again, it’s “free” with the OS..) At least, it’s tough if you have no idea what you’re doing… And I don’t.
Here’s a quick workaround:
1. Download and install “Windows Installer 1.0 SDK (x86)”:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=105dfc41-801e-4441-aa75-7696d794f109&DisplayLang=en
2. Install the Orca tool from the SDK you just unpacked.
3. Make a backup copy of “Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.msi”.
4. Run Orca and open Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.msi, this will allow you to view the install parameters.
5. Find the “LaunchCondition” variable and look for the following condition:
((VersionNT>500) AND (ServicePackLevel>=2)) OR ((VersionNT64) AND (ServicePackLevel>=1))
6. Add the following text, w/o the quotes, to the beginning of the above condition:
“(1=1) OR ”
7. It should now look like this:
(1=1) OR ((VersionNT>500) AND (ServicePackLevel>=2)) OR ((VersionNT64) AND (ServicePackLevel>=1))
8. Save the modified msi file
9. Double click your new msi and enjoy Premiere on any version of windows.
This document is provided as information only to show the inner workings of msi files. This document should not be use to circumvent Adobe’s installation restrictions, doing so may violate Adobe’s copyright.