Need installer for OLD ArcSoft PhotoStudio 4 for MAC Snow Leopard

[Insomniac0007]

I have Snow Leopard , ( 10.6.8 ), running in Parallels on a Mac Book Pro running Big Sur Intel
..... Slowly getting all my old programs running on the virtual OS ... Cannot find the installer .dmg for. ArcSoft PhotoStudio 4 .... does anyone happen to have that installer or know of a site where I can download it .... I have Googled myself blind and can only find photoStudio installers for much newer Mac OS's and Windows..... I still have Snow Leopard running on an older iMac but fear it may die at any time .... trying to get everything I liked on the old Mac running on the emulator ...Anything I have tried for which I had a .dmg installer has worked .

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I took a look around and can't find it either. Version 6 can be gotten from CNET's Download.com site. Is there any good reason for you to not be moving on from this software? It's incredibly old and outdated.

 

[Insomniac0007]

I took a look around and can't find it either. Version 6 can be gotten from CNET's Download.com site. Is there any good reason for you to not be moving on from this software? It's incredibly old and outdated.

Thanks for the search effort .... I think I ran across the 6 version several places ....
The reason I like Snow Leopard is because Mac has a bad habit of making older software impossible to run on newer OS's .... and making the new stuff stripped of features that were on the older versions ...iMovie HD is a good example ...it was the last iMovie to be useful .
PhotoStudio 4 was mostly great for PRINTING and good for saving picture files that would open with anything ...( as long as you selected jpg and not the picture file type the program defaulted to ) ....

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Thanks for the search effort .... I think I ran across the 6 version several places ....
The reason I like Snow Leopard is because Mac has a bad habit of making older software impossible to run on newer OS's .... and making the new stuff stripped of features that were on the older versions ...iMovie HD is a good example ...it was the last iMovie to be useful .
PhotoStudio 4 was mostly great for PRINTING and good for saving picture files that would open with anything ...( as long as you selected jpg and not the picture file type the program defaulted to ) ....

LOL! Man, move on. Lots of apps are out there that are just as capable and more up to date. I can't even BEGIN to believe PhotoStudio 4 did something special with printing that nothing else does. And basically everything out there can save to JPG format so the file can be opened with "anything". We can help youo find free or cheap alternatives if you like, but seriously... move on. This is the world we live in. Keep up or stay behind.

 

[pm-r]

I like Snow Leopard is because Mac has a bad habit of making older software impossible to run on newer OS's .... and making the new stuff stripped of features that were on the older versions ...

+1, agreed, and I thought I was the only one that was affected or maybe the only one that use certain features with the older application versions.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your PhotoStudio install and welcome to Mac-forums.com.


- Patrick
=======

 

[Insomniac0007]

LOL! Man, move on. Lots of apps are out there that are just as capable and more up to date. I can't even BEGIN to believe PhotoStudio 4 did something special with printing that nothing else does. And basically everything out there can save to JPG format so the file can be opened with "anything". We can help youo find free or cheap alternatives if you like, but seriously... move on. This is the world we live in. Keep up or stay behind.

LOL! Man, move on. Lots of apps are out there that are just as capable and more up to date. I can't even BEGIN to believe PhotoStudio 4 did something special with printing that nothing else does. And basically everything out there can save to JPG format so the file can be opened with "anything". We can help youo find free or cheap alternatives if you like, but seriously... move on. This is the world we live in. Keep up or stay behind.

I would tend to agree wrt photo studio but if you look at iMovie HD ...last version that allowed you to export the fully edited project back to a camera .... current Big Sur will not play a .gif file in QuickTime ... you have to use a several step process for each one using the space bar ... Big Sur again ... you cannot secure erase and write over unused space on a thumb drive ... you could do that way back in Snow Leopard ... and it goes on and on ...every time I try to do something familiar in Big Sur , I find the process is either not available or has multiple steps ...
Spoiler ... I am 77 and have been on the internet since the dial up only days ... so I like old stuff to still work as well as have the advantages of the new stuff ....
If Parallels can make all this old stuff work .... why can't Apple in its own 'new and improved' OS's ....
Bet I earn my Kurmudgen Badge for this post ....

 

[Insomniac0007]

+1, agreed, and I thought I was the only one that was affected or maybe the only one that use certain features with the older application versions.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your PhotoStudio install and welcome to Mac-forums.com.


- Patrick
=======

Don't know if you see replies to other people so I will do a copy paste of part of the reply I made above to someone else :

if you look at iMovie HD ...last version that allowed you to export the fully edited project back to a camera .... current Big Sur will not play a .gif file in QuickTime ... you have to use a several step process for each one using the space bar ... Big Sur again ... you cannot secure erase and write over unused space on a thumb drive ... you could do that way back in Snow Leopard ... and it goes on and on ...every time I try to do something familiar in Big Sur , I find the process is either not available or has multiple steps ...
Spoiler ... I am 77 and have been on the internet since the dial up only days ... so I like old stuff to still work as well as have the advantages of the new stuff ....
If Parallels can make all this old stuff work .... why can't Apple in its own 'new and improved' OS's ....
Bet I earn my Kurmudgen Badge for this post ....

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I would tend to agree wrt photo studio but if you look at iMovie HD ...last version that allowed you to export the fully edited project back to a camera .... current Big Sur will not play a .gif file in QuickTime ... you have to use a several step process for each one using the space bar ... Big Sur again ... you cannot secure erase and write over unused space on a thumb drive ... you could do that way back in Snow Leopard ... and it goes on and on ...every time I try to do something familiar in Big Sur , I find the process is either not available or has multiple steps ...
Spoiler ... I am 77 and have been on the internet since the dial up only days ... so I like old stuff to still work as well as have the advantages of the new stuff ....
If Parallels can make all this old stuff work .... why can't Apple in its own 'new and improved' OS's ....
Bet I earn my Kurmudgen Badge for this post ....

Spoiler... I'm 55 and have been on the internet since the dial-up days also. Look, one thing I swore I'd never do is fall behind in this world. Even in my teens, I could see how out of touch my parents were with the modern world, and it only got worse over time. My ex's parents were even worse. Her dad refused to use a computer even when he was still working selling insurance and literally his first computing device ever was a Windows Phone before we moved him to an iPhone. Props to you for not being illiterate in that regard, but you are falling into that trap of sticking with what you know and like. That's all fine and good until one day you can't stick with those things, and it looks like today is that day. Let's take animated gifs. Why do you need to play them in QuickTime? Use something else. There are a bazillion image viewers out there that can do the job, and many are better than what comes with macOS. For image viewing, my current favorite is EdgeView 3 off the App Store. It can present any standard image format I know of, including animated GIFs. What you do is your call, it's your life after all. We can help you adapt and get up to date if you are up to it. You just have to be open minded. The whole world has moved on from iMovie and the others and it's doing just fine. You can too.

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome, Insomniac0007. Just to let you know, everybody can see every post in a thread, so no need to repeat.

As for age and moving on, I'm almost 77, and I find it easier to move along and keep up with the times than to try to stand still and try makeshift work arounds. lifeisabeach gave you lots of good advice (for a youngster ).

A lot of your observations are true, but the impacts are not that large, frankly. Secure Erase free space on a thumb drive? Why? What's the need for that? Thumb drives are so cheap that if you are seriously worried about somebody bothering to try to recover what you erased on it at some point, just destroy the thing and make a new one. That's more secure that any secure erase! And if you don't want to do that, just write some innocuous file to fill up the space, then delete that file. Repeat a couple of times and the empty space where whatever you were worried about is now filled up with the more recently deleted files. Basically, that's what Secure Erase does anyway.

As for gif files, they play in Safari just fine.

I don't have a camera any more. I use my iPhone for images, videos, etc. Better than any camera I ever owned. So, I can't help with the problem of putting a video back into a camera. Why would anybody want to do that, anyway? Makes no sense to me.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

 

[pm-r]

Don't know if you see replies to other people so I will do a copy paste of part of the reply I made above to someone else :

I'm sure you saw MacInWin (Jake's) post above about what you post, reply or otherwise in the actual forums, can be seen and read by any member so no need to repeat what you replied to any other member.

So yes I am repeating what was written here previously but I just thought I should reply.



- Patrick
=======

 

[Insomniac0007]

Spoiler... I'm 55 and have been on the internet since the dial-up days also. Look, one thing I swore I'd never do is fall behind in this world. Even in my teens, I could see how out of touch my parents were with the modern world, and it only got worse over time. My ex's parents were even worse. Her dad refused to use a computer even when he was still working selling insurance and literally his first computing device ever was a Windows Phone before we moved him to an iPhone. Props to you for not being illiterate in that regard, but you are falling into that trap of sticking with what you know and like. That's all fine and good until one day you can't stick with those things, and it looks like today is that day. Let's take animated gifs. Why do you need to play them in QuickTime? Use something else. There are a bazillion image viewers out there that can do the job, and many are better than what comes with macOS. For image viewing, my current favorite is EdgeView 3 off the App Store. It can present any standard image format I know of, including animated GIFs. What you do is your call, it's your life after all. We can help you adapt and get up to date if you are up to it. You just have to be open minded. The whole world has moved on from iMovie and the others and it's doing just fine. You can too.

Thanks re tip on Edgeview ... will probably get it .... prefer pay apps ... fewer messages telling one all the reasons to get the pay app.

 

[Insomniac0007]

Welcome, Insomniac0007. Just to let you know, everybody can see every post in a thread, so no need to repeat.

As for age and moving on, I'm almost 77, and I find it easier to move along and keep up with the times than to try to stand still and try makeshift work arounds. lifeisabeach gave you lots of good advice (for a youngster ).

A lot of your observations are true, but the impacts are not that large, frankly. Secure Erase free space on a thumb drive? Why? What's the need for that? Thumb drives are so cheap that if you are seriously worried about somebody bothering to try to recover what you erased on it at some point, just destroy the thing and make a new one. That's more secure that any secure erase! And if you don't want to do that, just write some innocuous file to fill up the space, then delete that file. Repeat a couple of times and the empty space where whatever you were worried about is now filled up with the more recently deleted files. Basically, that's what Secure Erase does anyway.

As for gif files, they play in Safari just fine.

I don't have a camera any more. I use my iPhone for images, videos, etc. Better than any camera I ever owned. So, I can't help with the problem of putting a video back into a camera. Why would anybody want to do that, anyway? Makes no sense to me.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Thanks for your response . The issue with gif files is that on the older system you just double click and it opens , no matter if it is a .jpg or a .gif ... handy when the folder has a mixture of both. Dropping the gifs into a browser has the advantage that they loop automatically .
I found the ability to send final version of video back to camera was great for showing the video to a group using a projector ... camera, charge cable, RCA connectors , projector and remote for camera. I also like to have that one more copy of the completed video for backup.

 

[Insomniac0007]

+1, agreed, and I thought I was the only one that was affected or maybe the only one that use certain features with the older application versions.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your PhotoStudio install and welcome to Mac-forums.com.


- Patrick
=======

LOL. ... perhaps it is a Canadian thing ... " Bring in the new but keep the old" ..."Parallels" actually gives us a way of doing it .

 

[MacInWin]

The issue with gif files is that on the older system you just double click and it opens , no matter if it is a .jpg or a .gif ... handy when the folder has a mixture of both.

Well, if you right click on one of these gifs, then Get info, unlock the pane by clicking the lock and entering an admin password, you can then go to the "Open with" area and select Safari to be the app associated with the file. Now click on the "Change all" and wait a bit as it makes the change universal. Now a double click on a gif will launch Safari and open the gif. If Safari is already open, it will create a new tab and load the gif. That associating a file type with an app works just as it has for at least 13 years. I started with Snow Leopard, and it worked that way then and it works that way now.

EDIT: You can also do the same with jpg, if you want them to open by default in Safari, but jpgs already open in Preview by default, so it may not be needed.

 

[pm-r]

LOL. ... perhaps it is a Canadian thing ... " Bring in the new but keep the old" ..."Parallels" actually gives us a way of doing it .

I've never needed Windows or Parallels to run some of the older applications that I may need to run, possibly because of some old feature that they retain, but it's nice that my 2011 27" iMac can run all Mac OS versions from Snow Leopard 10.6 up to and including High Sierra 10.12.

More than good enough for my use, and I seldom go above using Mavericks 10.9.5.

BTW: Is ArcSoft PhotoStudio that you are looking for to install the same application that ACDSee, that was just down the road from where we live, took over???
If so, I would look for some replacement as others have suggested as they wrecked every single Mac application they took over such as Deneba Canvas and a photo Library organizing application I cannot recall the name of.

All great products in their previous state but killed under ACDSee's following take over, development and greed.




- Patrick
=======

 

[Insomniac0007]

I've never needed Windows or Parallels to run some of the older applications that I may need to run, possibly because of some old feature that they retain, but it's nice that my 2011 27" iMac can run all Mac OS versions from Snow Leopard 10.6 up to and including High Sierra 10.12.

More than good enough for my use, and I seldom go above using Mavericks 10.9.5.

BTW: Is ArcSoft PhotoStudio that you are looking for to install the same application that ACDSee, that was just down the road from where we live, took over???
If so, I would look for some replacement as others have suggested as they wrecked every single Mac application they took over such as Deneba Canvas and a photo Library organizing application I cannot recall the name of.

All great products in their previous state but killed under ACDSee's following take over, development and greed.




- Patrick
=======

I actually bought that ACDSee program thinking it was a new and improved program ... stripped of many common features and next to useless ... got my $$ back . It is the ancient PhotoStudio by ArcSoft that I am looking for ...

Well, if you right click on one of these gifs, then Get info, unlock the pane by clicking the lock and entering an admin password, you can then go to the "Open with" area and select Safari to be the app associated with the file. Now click on the "Change all" and wait a bit as it makes the change universal. Now a double click on a gif will launch Safari and open the gif. If Safari is already open, it will create a new tab and load the gif. That associating a file type with an app works just as it has for at least 13 years. I started with Snow Leopard, and it worked that way then and it works that way now.

EDIT: You can also do the same with jpg, if you want them to open by default in Safari, but jpgs already open in Preview by default, so it may not be needed.

Just did that but selected PIXEA as the host program as a trial ... thanks for the REMINDER of a once often used procedure .... LOL

 

[Insomniac0007]

+1, agreed, and I thought I was the only one that was affected or maybe the only one that use certain features with the older application versions.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your PhotoStudio install and welcome to Mac-forums.com.


- Patrick
=======

Happy to report that I found the needed program installers including the Photostudio version I needed ... mostly on a site called Macintosh Garden , (. macintoshgarden.org ), that has a treasure trove of old programs ....I also found useful stuff on Internet Archive , ( archive.org ), and even had support from 'archive' from a human !! by email.
I now have all of the programs I used frequently on the old iMac , happily installed and working in the Parallels Snow Leopard Server virtual OS .
I can now have all the new stuff in BIG SUR on the Mac Book Pro AND all the old stuff ... all on the same computer .
If you ever go the Parallels route it is worth trying to just drag and drop the applications from a clone of an old computer into the Applications folder of the Parallels virtual OS ... for quite a few of them, they worked just fine without needing an actual "installer" .