3 Replies Latest reply: Feb 17, 2008 6:45 PM by (shantou_chen) RSS

    Do Not Install TaxCut on CS3 Windows System

    David C Johnson Community Member
      Do not install H&R Block TaxCut on a Computer with Adobe CS3! I learned this the hard way. Luckily I had a full NT backup from yesterday so that I could restore my system. Unfortunately, I lost 24 hours of work.

      Without your permission, knowledge or consent, TaxCut installs a hacker created PDF printer driver and application called PDF995. PDF995 will prevent you from using Acrobat to create new PDFs, thus rendering Acrobat Pro 8 useless.

      Uninstalling PDF995 has the following disastrous effects:
      1) The PDF hooks to most, if not all, of the CS3 suite components are destroyed.
      2) Acrobat no longer starts and tells you that you must reinstall it.
      3) Photoshop no longer starts because critical files are missing.
      4) Ditto for Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, Bridge, Contribute and Dreamweaver.
      5) Attempting to repair the CS3 installation with the CS3 DVD does not work. The setup runs for a couple of minutes and then disappears.
        • 1. Re: Do Not Install TaxCut on CS3 Windows System
          Harron K. Appleman Community Member
          Tax season is upon us, so this is timely, Sergei.

          Please post this in as many places as you can. I'd make sure major publications, such as PC Magazine, have this information before they write their tax software reviews.
          • 2. Re: Do Not Install TaxCut on CS3 Windows System
            David C Johnson Community Member
            Update: After recovering my system using ntbackup, Illustrator started giving me that ubiquitous An unknown error occurred problem when saving files. It even gave me the error when saving a brand new file with no content. I didnt try all eight combinations of checkboxes on Illustrator Save As Options dialog (PDF Compatibility, etc.), but I did try all three checked and none checked. (Help => About Illustrator revealed version to be 13.0.0)

            Using the CS3 DVD to reinstall only Illustrator seems to have solved that problem, but that was close to another hour wasted. (Help => About Illustrator also showed version to be 13.0.0 after reinstall.)
            • 3. Re: Do Not Install TaxCut on CS3 Windows System
              I asked PDF995 about this problem. They asked:

              "Our product is fully compatible. You simply need to be aware of the following.

              If the Pagemaker document has images, go to the Print dialog (select "Print", the PDF995 driver, and "Options"), and make sure the "Send image data:" option is set to "Normal"."