How to Uninstall Adobe CS4

Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) is a collection of applications, such as Photoshop, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign and other Adobe applications.

In case you don’t use Adobe CS4 or want to upgrade to a more recent version, then you can easily remove Adobe CS4 using its built-in uninstaller.

How to uninstall Adobe CS4 in Windows

The simplest and best way to uninstall Adobe products, including Adobe CS4 is to uninstall it using the built-in uninstaller.

If you use Windows XP, then perform the steps illustrated below to uninstall Adobe CS4 from your system:

  1. Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel to open its corresponding window.
  2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
  3. In the Currently installed programs list, locate and select the version of Adobe CS4 installed on your computer.
  4. Click the Change/Remove button.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions.
  6. Restart Windows.

If you are a Windows 7/Vista user then you need to complete the following steps to remove Adobe CS4:

  1. Click the Start button.
  2. Type add or remove programs in the Start Search box, and then select Adobe CS4.
  3. Click the Uninstall/Change button.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions and restart your computer when the uninstallation is complete.

Adobe CS4 Uninstallation Problems

Issue 1 – After uninstalling CS4, I’m unable to reinstall it or upgrade to a later version

This may happen if any of the following holds true:

  • Adobe CS4 was not completely uninstalled.
  • You manually deleted the Adobe CS4 application folder before running its uninstaller.

In such a situation, Adobe recommends that you download and run Adobe CS4 Clean Script, and then reinstall your choice of Adobe Creative Suite software.

To run Adobe CS4 Clean Script, perform the following steps:

  1. Download Adobe CS4 Clean Script.
  2. Unzip WinCS5Cleanupscript.zip.
  3. Double-click the WinCS5Cleanupscript folder.
  4. Right-click CS5InstallerDatabaseUtility.exe and then click Run as administrator.

    5. Note: In case you don’t see the Run as administrator command when you right-click CS5InstallerDatabaseUtility.exe then simply double-click the file to execute it.

  5. In the command prompt that opens, Select your language (for example, type e for English).
  6. Next, type y to accept the End User License Agreement.
  7. Now, go through the list Adobe applications installed on your system and type the number corresponding to Adobe Creative Suite 4.
  8. Type y to confirm your selection.
  9. Press Enter.
  10. When the script completes, press the Enter key to exit.

After completing the steps, open the Add or Remove Programs utility to check if Adobe CS4 is still listed in the list of currently installed programs. If Adobe CS4 is still listed, then remove its entry (select Adobe CS4 and click Uninstall).

Finally, navigate to C:\Program Files, locate and delete the adobe folder and other old directories.

Issue 2 – You click the Remove button to uninstall Adobe CS4 in the Add or Remove Programs widow but nothings happen

Solution – Generally, the above behavior occurs when either some files of Adobe CS4 are damaged or the program was only partially installed.

If you are unable to uninstall Adobe CS4 via Add or Remove Programs then you may uninstall it using Perfect Uninstaller, which is a top-rated Windows uninstaller program. Besides uninstalling the programs the normal way (similar to Add or Remove Programs, but faster than it), this tool also allows you to forcefully uninstall those unwanted programs that prove difficult to remove.