After I deleted this file, I started up CS3 and went through the activation process one more time. After I tried several solutions including un-installing and re-installing the complete CS3 DVD, non of which resolved the problem, I decided to delete the (aforementioned file).
This was an endless cycle that always resulting in no application startup ? regardless of which CS3 application he attempted to start. When he clicked on the 'Next' button to start the application, the activation window would disappear, but the application would never startup. When he attempted to activate it, the activation went smoothly and he would get the 'Activation was Successful' message. I'm not sure if he installed or updated something to cause CS3 to ask for activation ? he claims that he did not. He had been using CS3 continuously since I originally installed it. It was suddenly requesting that he activate CS3, even though I had already activated it successfully 3 weeks earlier when I installed it. "One of my clients was experiencing a similar problem with CS3. You'll be required to go through the activation process again, but it should stick this time. Then re-launch one or more CS3 applications. /Library/Preferences/FLEXnet Publisher/FLEXnet>adobe_00080000_tsf.data.MacFixIt reader Jeff Andrew now offers a solution that involves quitting all open CS3 applications, then deleting the following file: In some cases, CS3 applications ask for activation again, even though they have already been successfully registered. We previously reported on an issue where Adobe CS3 applications refuse to register, in some cases delivering the error message that the applications have already been registered to "Mac Vegas," - apparently an internal Adobe build/development name.