How can I tell if ACR 4.3.1 is actually being used as opposed to a previous version?

Open 1 RAW file in Camera Raw, unmaximize the Camera Raw window, then read the Title Bar.
It will be in text on the Title Bar: Camera Raw 4.3.1 - Nikon D300

OK that's what I thought. After I copied the new RAW plugin over, it still says 4.0, which is really odd. I have no idea where Vista 64 is putting this file, or how to update it using Vista 64 -- lol. It is perplexing indeed.

I guess if I want to use ACR with a 1DS MKIII I'll have to wait for CS4 to come out. Hopefully by then it will also be 64 bit, and have a RAW converter that has the 1DS MKIII already in it.

Hello DWDallum

I have Vista Ultimate 64 with Camera Raw 4.4 installed to
"Program Files(x86)/Common Files/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CS3/File Formats"

Method is to download Camera Raw 4.4 (Camera_Raw_4.4zip) and extract it (Camera Raw.8bi). Go to the above address and move the existing Camera Raw file (same name) to another (backup) directory. Copy the new (extracted) Camera Raw 4.4 (Camera Raw.8bi) into this location and you are set to go. You will note the files have the same names, but different modification dates.

Hope this solves your problem.

Cheers
Larry

Yeah I know. It's jsut not working. I've completely uninstalled CS3 manually, registry and all, and then reloaded it and copied the new file over to that directory. When ACR opens, it still shows 4.0 I'm at a loss on this one. I've spent around 30 hours in the last several days with no luck. I think to use the 1DS MKIII--when I buy it--I'll just have to use Canon's RAW converter, or convert the MKIII's files to DNG format so ACR 4.0 can read them. Either that, or wait until CS4 is released with the newest ACR embedded. I could also reload my entire machine and see if that would work. I may reload a basic copy of Vista 64 on another hard drive--no upgraded drivers--then load CS3 and see if I can get it to take like that. I can load it on another hard drive and set that hard drive as the boot drive, without affecting my current load.

I don't know though. I'm over it at this point. It won't update on my current machine and load out, so I'll work around it somehow.

For some reason, Windows or Adobe will not allow the new file to take, using some shadow copy of the old version hidden from Vista's search patterns. What is strange though is that if I delete the copy, and delete the OTHER copy that Vista puts in the "Virtual Store" location (Google this phrase to understand why Vista does this), ACR will not open--obviously. When I copy the file back into the location you give above, it still won't work. After that the only thing that will bring back ACR is a MANUAL removal of Adobe registry entires preceded by a complete uninstall of CS3. If I leave the path keys in the registry, I can reload and ACR still will not work.

This is system specific, so I have no idea why it's happening or how to solve the problem.

See this thread on Adobe Forums for a full disclosure:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?13@@.59b4a3cf/28

Something odd here because 4.0 would not have been able to open a D300 file would it? I can't remember the timeline, maybe someone who owned CS3 when the D300 was released could tell us and correct me if I'm wrong. The Adobe website only lists everything currently supported, not when they were enabled.

ACR is a bit confusing as it will list the original rev that the raw file of a particular camera was enabled. You can find this listed in the camera profile tab when you have the raw file open in ACR. So far example with CS3 open and ACR 4.3.1 loaded and running I see the following for a raw file for each of the listed cameras;
XT (350) 3.1
5D 3.3
1ds3 4.3
1ds2 2.4
1ds 2.4 (I think they may have made a change to 1ds files in 2.4)

Why not download a 1ds3 raw file from somewhere and test out your version?

Mike

I was going to do just that. However, other people have reported that the 4.4 ACR shows in the title bar of the ACR window.

If you read the above link to the adobe forums, you will see something else that has happened: I can copy the new ACR file to the phhotoshop program path plugin folder, where photoshop is installed. Now it shows, along with the older version, 4.4 from teh Help>photoshop> plugins panel. Before it was only showing the 4.0 version.

I just downloaded a D300 RAW file and opened it in CS3 with 4.3.1 In the camera tab it shows it's using 4.3, so I'm pretty sure 4.0 would not work. No idea why your system is showing 4.0 but this suggests that is has to be at least 4.3.1 and may in fact be using the 4.4 you've installed. I suggest you try a 1ds3 file which also requires 4.3.1

By the way Adobe pulled 4.4 due to some bugs.

Mike

By the way do you have CS2 installed as well and sharing plugins? I had some VERY funky behavior with CS3 until I removed all of my CS 2 plugins I was sharing.

No, only CS3

A poster on the adobe forums recommended putting the ACR update in the Photoshop plug in directory. Now I can "Open with Photoshop" from bridge, and use the ACR 4.4 version. If I double click on the raw file in bridge, I get the 4.0 version.

Of course this doesn't explain why Bridge is still using the 4.0 version, but at least I can use 4.4 now.

I was looking for a MAC version of the DNG converter for a system I'm going to test today and found a page at Adobe that lists all of the raw converters.
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/pro...tform=Macintosh

ACR 4.0 only supported up to the D200
http://www.adobe.com/special/photoshop/cam..._4.0_ReadMe.pdf

The D300 was not supported until 4.3.1
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3821

So when you had a D300 file open in ACR even if it was showing ony rev 4.0 it must have been using 4.3.1 or 4.4

Mike

That's for test purposes only ... to see if your copy of the plug-in file is corrupted, for instance. Don't leave ACR installed in Photoshop's plug-in folder for actual work!



It's because a copy of the original ACR 4.0 plug-in file still is installed somewhere in your system where Bridge can see it. Track it down and get rid of it! Then move one single copy of ACR 4.3.1 to where it belongs. Don't use ACR 4.4 as of now (file version 4.4.0.79) because that's buggy; better wait for a revised version.

-- Olaf

I've tried to track it down. It's not on the system as far as Search goes. It is shadowed somewhere by Vista. Last night I deleted all known copies of ACR (as done with Vista's search engine) and it still opened as 4.0. Once I reboot it will not open. Then if I copy it over--the new version--and reboot, ACR is still unaccessible--even though the file is visible in the directory it is suppose to be in. Nothing I do will allow it to ever open again unless I reload PS, AND clean the registry manually.

Also, why should I not use 4.4 (4.3.1) in the PS plugin directory? It works fine. It just won't open in Bridge. Who cares?

Your reference to "mysterious" shadowing by Vista, is nothing more than a workstation level implementation of Volume Shadow copy which has been around since Server 2003.

If you goto Control Panel | System Properties | System Protection Tab, you can easilly turn on or off shadow copy behavior by drive - including external drives.

From the built in Help Documentation found from this Dialog:

How are shadow copies created?
Shadow copies are automatically saved as part of a restore point in System Properties. If System Protection is turned on, Windows automatically creates shadow copies of files that have been modified since the last restore point was made. Typically restore points are made once a day. If your hard disk is partitioned or if you have more than one hard disk on your computer, you need to turn on System Protection on the other partitions or hard disks.

Note
Only one version of a file is saved as a shadow copy. For example, if you modify a file several times in one day, only the version that was current when the restore point was made is saved. (my emphasis)


How do I access previous versions of a file and folder?
Right-click the file or folder, and then click Restore previous versions.

You'll see a list of available previous versions of the file or folder. The list will include files saved on a backup as well as shadow copies, if both types are available.

Please note that "Shadow Copies" are *never* restored without specific user intervention. Possibly you are confusing this with the Windows DLL cache? .8bi files are not considered system libraries by windows, and in no instance wopuld ever be affected or overwritten by the DLL cache.

You might consider downloading Mark Russinovitch's excellent Process Explorer:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb896653.aspx

A great tool for determining which files, dll's etc are opened by a particular process . . .
hth - John

I had a similar problem, when I pulled 4.4 from the common files it still showed in CS3, I had to change it in plugins as well to get back to the earlier version (although I haden't installed 4.4 there) I'm assuming PS had updated itself or copied the file across. Wayne

I know what the workstation shadow copy is, but I do not understand why Vista would be making one for Adobe ACR, if in fact it is. The Shadow Copy is there so you can revert to a prior instance of a file in case of some attack or malfunction of the OS itself. It;s easy to check if Vista is actually making a shadowed copy--simply right click on the file and and look at its properties--then see if there is a prior version to revert to. if not, Vista isn't making one. I did that already. I have that program and I am thinking about using it.

Cool! Try launching Process Explorer after starting CS3, the open ACR - it will tell you precisely which is being loaded. Then, after killing everything in PE - try Bridge . . .

-John

Wayne, what do you mean you had to change it in plugins? It should only be in the common files folder.

As I explained earlier, I deleted any copy of the file I could find. After restarting, I copied the new ACR file to the common directory. However, bridge still can't find it or any ACR pluging. It's sitting there right now, but Bridge can't find it, nor can Photoshop. The only way I can use ACR is to choose "open in PS. I also can't get Bridge to rebuild thumbnails, even with manual purge of all cache files. This is the same thing that has happened before after each deletion of the Camera Raw.8bi file from the common files plugins folder. Vista 64 is a living Abortion in many respects. I really wish MS would have stuck with XP 64 instead of trying to be the worlds "Media Center" which isn't ever going to happen.

Anyway, as it is right now, Bridge can't build thumbnails no matter what I purge or how I purge the cache, nor can it find the ACR plugin sitting it its dedicated C:\ . . .common files . . . plugins folder. Nor can PS itself find the new ACR file in the same location. As far as Bridge and PS are concerned, ACR is not in that folder, although I'm looking at it right now.

Guess I'll have to uninstall and reload CS again and manually clean up the registry keys so Bridge will look for the ACR plugin once it is reinstalled (simply reloading doesn't cut it). Then just leave the 4.0 ACR plugin alone, and drop the 4.4 plug in into the PS plugins folder. Then, just wait for PSCS4 to come out (shrugs).

The other option is to reload my system with good old XP and be done with it. Wait a couple of years for Vista to mature, and then try it again.

I'm using Process Explorer but I'm not seeing anything unusual, but then again, I really don't know what to look for.

I disabled all system protection and I'll reboot tomorrow and see if Bridge can pick up the ACR file then.

The documentation with PE is really good, but here would be an example using CS3:

With PE running, I launch CS3, do a simple File Open, then browse to a .cr2 file:




Right click the photshop.exe process and Properties. Select the Threads tab, Scroll down and find the Camera Raw process:



Finally, file properties:



-John

ps: These are on my 32-bit laptop running Server 2008 (same kernel as Vista), actually makes a very nice workstation

http://blogs.msdn.com/vijaysk/archive/2008...desktop-os.aspx

Joh,

You're not going to believe this, but there are two RAW files in Process Explorer. However, both point to the same regular x86 common files location. The interesting thing is that the file in that location is 10.1 MB (ACR 4.4), but the file showing in Properties is 9.7, which is ACR4.0 (ACR 4.0 is loading.)

So somehow ACR 4.0 is opening but PS is not actually reading the location given by PE itself!

Here is an image that will explain it better. it's at 1900x1600 since that is what I run my monitor at. I left it at that size in case you run yours that size also.

It will be interesting to see what you make of this.

Thanks for you help.

I had to remove 4.4 from the adobe plugins file, as it was still showing in ACR after I removed it and went back to 4.3.
Now when I updated to 4.4 I only placed the 8bi in the common folder, but somehow it got across to plugins as well, no idea how it managed it, I assumed either PS has updated on it's own or some how it's copied the file across for whatever reason, slightly puzzling?? Wayne

Joh,

Do you have any further ideas on this?