Multiple Software Versions

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Today’s Question: I see multiple instances of Photoshop, Lightroom, and Bridge in my Creative Cloud app window (I am an active subscriber). Which am I supposed to download? I only want desktop-based workflow. Help?!

Tim’s Quick Answer: The latest versions of the Adobe applications included in the Creative Cloud are nominally the 2018 versions, but they appear in the Creative Cloud application without a year. Older versions include a year as part of the name. Thus, you only need to update applications that don’t show a year in their name, and you may want to uninstall versions identified with the year 2017 or earlier.

More Detail: One of the benefits of a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud is that you will receive relatively frequent updates to the applications, with new feature additions and bug fixes. Periodically, however, Adobe releases more significant updates to the applications, and updates the version number as a result.

Adobe recently shifted to an approach of presenting a calendar year in place of a version number, although a version number can still be found in the “About” dialog and on the splash screen for the various Creative Cloud applications. In the Creative Cloud application, under the “Apps” tab heading, you can find the current status of your applications, including the option to update or install new versions of the applications as they become available.

If you see an “Install” button to the right of an application, that means the application (or major new version) is not currently installed. If you see an “Update” button to the right of the application name that means the application is installed and a new update is available. Finally, if you see an “Open” button, that indicates the latest version of the application is already installed.

For applications that you use, and that are shown on the Apps list without a year as part of the application name and with an “Install” or “Update” button to the right, you will probably want to click that button to install or update to the latest version.

For applications with a year of 2017 or earlier as part of the application name, and for which you have installed the 2018 version of the application, you can uninstall the application through the applicable “uninstall” application through your operating system to remove that application from your computer. I recommend that you wait to perform this step until after you have installed the latest major release and have confirmed that new version is functioning properly.

For Lightroom users, note that the latest “desktop” version of Lightroom is Lightroom Classic CC. If you are not interested in the cloud-based version of Lightroom, you should not install the “Lightroom CC” application, but instead continue to work with the “Classic” version.