Quick answer: Adobe Creative Cloud (subscription) has no serial number — sign into your Adobe account to reinstall. Older Adobe CS6, CS5, and earlier perpetual products use a serial number stored in the registry, which Product Key Recovery Tool can retrieve.
Step 1: Determine Which Adobe Product You Have
Adobe Creative Cloud (Subscription)
No serial number. Sign into your Adobe account at creativecloud.adobe.com to reinstall. Subscription must be active.
Includes: Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects (2014 and later)
Adobe CS6, CS5, CS4 (Perpetual)
Has a serial number. Must be saved before reinstalling. Number stored in the registry.
Includes: Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, older standalone versions
For Creative Cloud Subscriptions
- Go to creativecloud.adobe.com
- Sign into your Adobe account
- Download and install the Creative Cloud app
- Install any apps from the Creative Cloud library
Your apps are linked to your Adobe account, not to the computer. You can install on up to two computers simultaneously with a standard subscription.
For Adobe CS Perpetual Licenses
The serial number is stored in the Windows registry. Product Key Recovery Tool reads and exports it automatically.
Product Key Recovery Tool
Finds Adobe CS serial numbers along with Windows, Office and 10,000+ other software keys.
- ✓ Adobe CS6, CS5, CS4, CS3 serial numbers
- ✓ Also recovers Windows and Office keys in same scan
- ✓ Export to TXT/CSV/HTML before reinstalling
- ✓ Free trial shows all found keys
Where Adobe Stores Serial Numbers in the Registry
Adobe perpetual product serial numbers are stored in the registry at paths similar to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\[ProductName]\[Version]
The values are in a proprietary format. Product Key Recovery Tool handles the decoding automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Summary
Creative Cloud subscriptions need only your Adobe account login. For older CS perpetual products, use Product Key Recovery Tool to export the serial number from the registry before formatting.
Download Product Key Recovery Tool — Free Trial