cheat the RAM test

Image via Wikipedia

A friend asked me to install the Adobe Illustrator CS4 trial on their PC. Sadly, after a rather large download and unpack the darn thing failed. It just refused to install with less than 512MB of memory; quit was the only button. This little PC gives a few MB to the video card and so it's always been a few crayons short of a full box.

I crawled around on the web to find out how to make it work and, sure enough, I came across some folks that got an older Adobe product to stick. The trick goes like this.

1. Find the un-packed setup folder "Adobe CS4"
2. Find the file AdobeIllustrator14mul.proxy.xml
3. Open this file in notepad.
4. Change:"Memory":{"System":{"Default":{"Require":"512","Exclude":"500"}}}
5. To:"Memory":{"System":{"Default":{"Require":"400","Exclude":"410"}}}
6. Re-run Setup.

This worked great and my friend is now happily playing with the Adobe Illustrator CS4 trial.  However, if they get serious about using CS4 I recommend getting a new machine.

Related articles:
Bypass RAM check on Adobe Illustrator CS Installation (jaunis.blogspot.com)