Windows 10: Windows update May 2020 and Adobe CC

When can I expect the Windows May 2020 update? My main software I use for work Adobe CC can't function on the current version. This lasts for too long now and I can't wait anymore. I constantly get errors and it's not Adobe's fault this time, but Microsoft Windows'. I have tried contacting their customer support, but nothing fixed the issue. Now I have to wait for Windows update and it takes way way too long to get it. I use Microsoft Surface Studio 2 - it was so expensive and I did not expect such issues. My business is really suffering. I can't sync my Cloud files, I can't Access my Adobe Fonts, I can't update my Adobe software etc. When is this Windows update going to be available?

:)

 

Adobe's Flash to be phased out in 2020

Yesterday, Adobe announced that Flash will no longer be supported after 2020:

Flash & The Future of Interactive Content | Adobe Blog



In response, Microsoft published a communication which describes their next steps for the Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge:

The End of an Era – Next Steps for Adobe Flash - Microsoft Edge Blog

 

AMD Accelerates Adobe Photoshop CC and Premier Pro CC

AMD today announced at Adobe MAX new and improved accelerated features for Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The introduction of the all-new Smart Sharpen feature and recently updated Blur Gallery and Liquify effects reinforces the collaboration between Adobe and AMD to provide high-quality, impressive performance to creative professionals everywhere by fully tapping into AMD compute and graphics processing leadership through cross-platform open standards like OpenCL and OpenGL.

"AMD and Adobe are working together to help provide powerful solutions that enable creative professionals to speed workflows and increase throughput, boost productivity and creativity, and fully realize their creative vision," says Neal Robison, senior director, Software Alliances at AMD. "AMD APUs and graphics coupled with Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC push the boundaries of what's possible and help artists of virtually all talents and disciplines make the imagined real."

"We have increased the performance of our industry-leading applications Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC with enhanced OpenCL and OpenGL support, empowering creative professionals and consumers alike to harness the many benefits and robust power of modern AMD APUs and GPUs," said Simon Williams, director of Strategic Relations at Adobe. The creative community asked, and AMD and Adobe answered by providing artists a powerful combination of technologies with which to streamline today's complex creative workflows."

AMD and Adobe recently announced expanded OpenCL support for Adobe Premiere Pro CC at the National Association of Broadcasters Show 2013, including multi-stream and mixed format accelerated workflows with real-time effects, color grading and finishing with hardware-accelerated rendering to the chosen final destination format. Today AMD announced support for additional OpenCL-accelerated features with the announcement of Adobe Premiere Pro CC including OpenCL hardware-powered rendering with Adobe Media Encoder CC for Adobe Premiere Pro CC projects and multi-GPU support. This enables users to queue up multiple Adobe Premiere Pro CC projects to be rendered using all available GPU horsepower in the background. Both Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC fully support advanced display technologies such as 4K and AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology.

New and enhanced Adobe Photoshop CC features have been added to the dozens of existing open hardware accelerated features in Adobe Photoshop CC:

• Adobe's all-new Smart Sharpen filter leverages OpenCL and AMD graphics technology to sharpen images faster1 while minimizing halo effects on distinct edges and providing precise noise reduction control;
• The enhanced Blur Gallery harnesses the power of OpenCL and AMD graphics technology to deliver mouse-down previews quickly, accurately and with high on-screen resolution of up to a million pixels. High quality instant on-screen and in-context feedback allows artists to work more efficiently without unnecessary disruptions to the creative workflow. Non-destructive hardware-accelerated Blur Gallery effects are applied as Smart Objects to create a desired look for images and even video within Photoshop CC;
• Performance enhancements have also been made to the Liquify effect so that creative professionals can now push, pull, rotate, reflect, pucker, or bloat selected image areas to achieve unique artistic effects with greater speed2 while working with even the largest images.

Users everywhere can join the Adobe Creative Cloud and gain a competitive advantage through immediate access to AMD hardware-accelerated features and functionality with the latest Adobe creative software products. Adobe Creative Cloud offers an end-to-end, cross-platform tool kit with industry-leading software seamlessly integrated with all the hardware needed to create, collaborate and stay connected.

Adobe and AMD are previewing the next generation of their professional imaging, video and audio products at Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, May 4-8 in Los Angeles (AMD Adobe MAX Booth #115.)

 

Why does Windows 10 allow Adobe CC to be malware-like in uninstallation?

I wanted to uninstall the virus-like Adobe Creative Cloud (aka Adobe CC) and related products from my computer.

Adobe CC is Adobe's:

(a) interface to suite of cloud products - which get installed alongside as separate programs, and

(b) viral-marketing-like platform - in that it makes it difficult to remove Adobe CC and probably captures heaps of data.

It was installed following a trial of one of their Adobe products.

[Side note: I let that trial expire because I simply wasn't sold on the massive cost of adobe's product is not worth it when there are very comparable open source alternatives that are totally free - blender (animation + cad + lots), inkscape
(vector images - i.e svg), gimp (raster images - png, jpg, etc), openshot (video editing interface) etc. Though I understand that Adobe rules the professional designer market.]

Anyway, I wanted out.

With just about any other program, I would simply go and uninstall the program from Windows ad/remove - most good programs will also include their own uninstaller. But not so for Adobe CC and its spawn.

I tried using the normal/standard Windows interface, I went to System > Add or Remove Program. This did nothing. I mean that after an initial authority to change hard drive is given (probably only taken so Adobe can legally
note you have tried to uninstall its virus-like programs), it simply does nothing - no warnings or anything.

So some searching later I noted:

1. a suggestion to uninstall via Adobe CC - which I could not open, so useless;

2. there is separate uninstaller for Adobe CC - which I objected to having to download and install Adobe's uninstaller to uninstall Adobe (a step I am sure Adobe have taken to make it extremely difficult to remove their tentacles from your computer); and

3. a suggestion to try uninstall via windows app store like interface.

Interestingly, uninstalling via the alternate boxy app interface Windows is trying to push, going to Settings > Apps & features to try uninstall there, and I had success with 1 of Adobe CC's products (forgot which).
But not the rest - Photoshop CC and Adobe CC itself (Windows and Adobe CC say I cannot uninstall.

Anyway, the problem is still not resolved and I am still searching - and admittedly getting closer to caving in and downloading the uninstaller.

But my question is:

Is this ( I believe deliberately ) terrible uninstall experience because Windows has a special arrangement with Adobe, or has Windows simply failed to enforce a reasonable install/uninstall conditions?

I ask because, as you may have guessed, I am 'very annoyed' with this "deliberately-difficult-to-uninstall" behaviour being tolerated / permitted by windows - in my view, Windows (or any OS) should ENFORCE an easy user uninstall for ALL programs.