Ugly Adobe Splash Screens

The Really Ugly 2015 Adobe Splash Screens
(I know, it's subjective)

What has happened to Adobe's taste in illustration?

That is the difficult question one must ask after looking at the splash screens for most of the Creative Cloud 2015 applications. (I know I'm a little late on this. Some of the images have been improved for the latest editions.)

Adobe's packages used to have some really attractive images, that showed off the product capabilities and were a pleasure to see over and over.

Now, I want to close my eyes when the programs start up. And I'm not the only one.
(I did a web search for "Adobe CC Splash Screens Suck" to start this post.)

Oh God, my eyes!

I found this site that shows all the screens and has some comments. Now, I know I shouldn't take some negative comments found on the Internet as proof of anything, except that at least some people agree with me: 

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Ugh…I just hate them. Hate them, hate them, hate them.
The AE one is cool, the Photoshop one is barely tolerable, Illustrator turns my stomach, and I would consider not updating Dreamweaver just to avoid looking at that mess. WHAT were they thinking? Trippy LSD-induced art is something everyone would love? Just. Plain. Awful. (Brandon)

bethsays:July 15, 2015 at 12:32 pm

How do you change them?!

Marcussays:
Illustrator splash screen brought me here, after nearly vomiting. Found switching instructions before the app even finished loading. 

bailsonesays:

October 6, 2015 at 3:30 pmThe most awful splashscreen Series by Adobe. Especialy Photoshop with that super ugly 25 years anniversary. using adobe for 15 years now cant remember a more awful splashscreen except for beta releases ^^ Someone must be able to change those pictures. help Pls. 

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So, back to the original question: What happened to Adobe's Taste in Illustration?

I included "Subjective" in the title above because, hey, I get it. Visual art is very hard  impossible to assess objectively. It's pretty much all pure gut reaction, personal associations, visual appetites. In many cases, art might as well be perfume, in the way people either like or don't like a certain scent, and you can't really argue with each person's preference.

That said, these splash screens are the equivalent of someone wearing a whole bottle of cheap cologne. They're just...too....much. In fact, it's almost like they were chosen by a very smart art professor who wanted his class to think about how technically competent, colorful, imaginative images could also be, well, ugly.

Dreamweaver splash screen. Swamilicious?
I even hate the colors.

Again, nothing against these artists. Not saying I could do better; I couldn't (well, I could make some innocuous abstract color-field images that I don't think would be as ugly.) These are definitely "creative" images. Was Adobe going for a more international feel? A younger vibe? Showcasing somewhat "unusual" personal perspectives? Or trying to signal that LSD is back, baby.

Adobe Illustration splash screen. Post-apocalyptic seashells?

One of those insanely complicated doodles done 

with a Bic pen during sophomore Algebra?

You also have to say something about the typography on the Photoshop splash screen. The "25 years of Photoshop" type is just another head-scratcher. Retro, mixed up, cliche, stupid, and ugly. Mixing beveled, chromed, multicolored (bruised) lettering with a 70s rounded retro balloon script is either incredibly sophisticated in an ironic, piss-off kind of way. Or really, really lame.

Maybe these images are, more than anything, an indication that Adobe software is making computer art too easy. That would be one hell of a smart marketing message by Adobe, in a way.
says:

Adventures in Windows 10, part 1

Adventures in Windows 10, part 1

Quick summary: This week, I finally figured out how to put Windows 10 on my desktop PC without removing (upgrading) Windows 7. Then I dealt with Wifi issues, as in two Wifi adapters wouldn't work with Windows 10. Then I ran into activation issues. Some of the information here might help others in their Windows 10 adventures.

Installing Windows 10 to dual boot

I had previously downloaded Windows 10 from Microsoft and put the image on a 32GB USB stick. This copy worked for upgrading -- a colleague used it to upgrade his home PC. But when I tried to run the setup program on my machine, I couldn't figure out how to do a clean install on another partition. The setup program only wanted to do an upgrade, as far as I could tell. 

After a lot of searching online, I ran across a post (sorry I didn't save the URL) that explained how to run another setup program. It seems that you have to go into the SUPPORT folder and run the setup.exe that's in there; there are several programs that have setup in their names, but only one that is named just "setup.exe." Running that gave me the option to choose a partition. I was able to choose the new SSD I had installed and never used, which was what I wanted -- a clean Windows 10 installation running on an SSD. 

When the entire setup was done and I rebooted for the last time, after seeing the hardware start screen, I got a Windows boot screen that listed both Windows 10 and Windows 7. I was able to choose either one and boot into each OS. Great!

Just one problem: In Windows 10, I did not have a network connection through the Wifi adapter plugged into a USB port on the system.

Getting Wifi to work

So again I started searching online, and found many posts about Wifi adapters no working after Windows 10 upgrades. That wasn't exactly my situation, since I had done a clean install for dual boot, as described above.

Here's some of what I tried, and what happened:

Downloaded the latest drivers for the Netgear RangeMax Wifi adapter, model 111 v2. But there was no Windows 10 driver, and on the Netgear support page I found out that very few of their Wifi adapters had Windows 10 support. Bummer. The adapter I was using is relatively recent -- it support 802.11n after all.

Tried installing the drivers several (many) times, in different ways. In each case, the drivers installed, but when the installer asked me to insert the USB adapter, it never detected it. Here are things I tried:

• Device Manager showed a USB lan adapter -- but not its full name.
• Using the Update Drivers command in Device Manager didn't work, probably because the setup program was a full executable, and didn't have an MSI or INI file that the update dialog box could read.
• Deleting the adapter in device manager and reinstalling didn't work. The setup program always failed with the adapter not detected.
• Trying to reboot Windows without the drivers installed, hoping that a Windows generic driver would be used automatically, didn't work.
• Another Netgear Wifi adapter had the same problems. This one is a micro adapter, WN1000M I believe. It also had no Windows 10 drivers available.

So what finally worked? I really wanted to play around with Win10 and the new Edge browser, so I moved the Wifi router closer to my desktop, ran an Ethernet cable to the PC, and booted Windows 10. Of course I had network then. But I also had 2 Wifi adapters installed. And I could connect to them and get to the internet. (!!)

Yes. Simply using ethernet for a minute somehow (and I mean, how?!?) made windows recognize 2 wifi adapters that were still plugged into the PCs USB ports, recognize the drivers, and WORK. 

The last thing to do was unplug the Ethernet cable and make sure everything was still all right with Wifi. And it was, and is.

STRANGE but true. 

A little more detail: I can't remember every place I checked, but when I did the Ethernet cable, I first noticed that the Wifi adapters had appeared in (I believe) the Networking (?) panel in Win10. 

Wherever it was exactly, I new something different had happened because their full names appeared -- brand, model, etc. I checked Device Manager and they were there under Network Adapters, again, with full names. In the Connect window (clicking the network icon in the system tray), my Wifi network name was available, and I clicked "Connect" there. It asked for the Wifi password, which I entered, and the connection was successful.

Chasing network settings

Windows has always been tricky with its networking settings seemingly scattered among multiple dialog boxes, control panels, windows, commands, etc. 

There's the network explorer view, there's a "Network and Internet" control panel, there's the Network and Sharing Center, there's the command prompt tools (ipconfig, etc.). There are the properties dialog boxes for the adapters. There are connection properties (where are those now? I forget). 

Even now, after years (since Windows 98 or so) of working with Windows networking, I often can't find the dialog box or panel that has the feature I want. And I end up in the same wizard or properties dialog box over and over again, trying to make the magic happen.

It's no wonder I sometimes long for the days of AppleTalk. Having a bunch of Macs get together on a peer-to-peer network as easily as plugging in a cord was amazing.

#technostalgia

So I have a new, Windows 10 Wifi adapter getting delivered today from Amazon that now I don't need.