I get that it’s a licensing service (for PSCS3), but I’m not happy that it’s interfering with my ProShow Gold software. 🙁
Is there any reason that it should be running, even if I don’t have any Adobe apps running?
The fact that I can’t run the two programs simultaneously is frustrating, but at least I have been able to figure out it was the FNPLicensingService.exe that was causing my PSG to crash.
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The only issue I have with the licensing service is that I don’t want it running all the time. Can you imagine how munged-up our computers will become if all of the software publishers slap a similar licensing service on our computers?
Sadly, because I run the CS3 Suite so often, it is impractical to shut down and restart the licensing service each time. Darn sloppy system architecture!
With Symantec filling our systems with pointless processes and silly services, we are getting a real traffic jam on the work computers. They all seem to have forgotten who owns the computer.
There is also the mDNSResponder.exe which is "Bonjour"?
I had to end that process as well. 🙁
I agree, neither of those processes should be running if the software is NOT currently running. They should turn on and off, as the programs are launched and closed.
While you can always remove Bonjour, it may be even easier to just disable the process so it never launches. Then and if you need it for Version Cue support, you can simply re-enable the service. Upon a new CS3 installation, the service is shown in the Services applet as ##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##. If you uninstall and reinstall Bonjour, the name will be updated to "Bonjour Service" in the Services applet, but that’s not critical to simply disabling the service so that it doesn’t run. Regardless, as per this Adobe Tech Note < http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=kb40 0982>, the following will update the name.
From the Run dialog, enter "C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe" -remove and then "C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe" -install
Refer to the Tech Note if you simply want to uninstall Bonjour.
After removing Bonjour, my system was rendered unstable, anything Winsock-related (network in general) was stopped. Only a System Restored saved the day.
I’m deeply disappointed with Adobe. We, legal users, are once more paying a stupid price because of piracy, while illegal users surely don’t have to bother with this kind of problem at all, since the damn ‘Bonjour’ thing probably won’t even be installed with illegal copies.
Way to go, Adobe.
Gee, how can companies be so stupid? Stop bundling garbage with the software we legally buy and install! Leave us alone!
I wouldn’t remove it. I would/did disable it from the services applet in control panel> admin tools> services. you can’t blame adove for a problem caused when you remove parts of the program.
adobe does a lot of stupid stuff aboas far as the activation scheme goes, but i don’t think bonjour svc is part of it (it’s an apple product used in networking, i believe adobe uses it for version cue, go to apple.com and read ut it if you’re interested).
Bonjour is not an Abode product… it is an apple product and is bundled with iTunes and some other software that use its services (the service it provides is "effortless" discovery of other local computers in a LAN). Please blame Apple if this Bonjour is giving you problems.
1 QUIT ALL Adobe Applications 2 CTRL-ALT-DELETE and click "Processes" Tab, if you see FNPLicensingService highlight it and click "End Task", once its not shown in the "Processes" Tab goto next step. 3 Search your computer for "FNP_Act_Installer.dll" (without quotes).. you may need to click "More Advanced Options" in the search window and select "Search System Folders/ Hidden Files/ Subfolders" then click "Search" button…. wait for it to completely search your hard drive! 4 Rename or delete all found matches (there may be serveral depending on how many Adobe applications are installed on your computer.
Now FNPLicensingService should no longer run, do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and check after launching some Adobe programs. This has worked for me flawlessly but if you experience problems you will need to return the "FNP_Act_Installer.dll" files back to their original locations, it is best to rename them and not delete them (in Step 4) incase you need to revert.
Cool. As a tip for renaming, I like to just change the extension on the DLL to OLD. Alternatively, you can preface the file name with a tilde the way you do to disable plugins.
not on my box. if something is re-enabling it (and rest assured it’s not "itself"), that something needs it. most likely itunes or some other apple application that you want to run).
and by setting it to disabled instead of automatic or manual (manual is the setting where the service stays disabled until needed, either started by a user or an applicaiton with sufficient permission) you should prevent it from ever starting and an app that REALLY needs it will fail, thowing an error. THEN you can reenable it.
disabled really means disabled. if it doesn’t on your box, something’s wrong.
Unless I’m missing something here, the FNPLicensingService.exe (FLEXnet Licensing Service) is the new Macrovision license manager for PS CS3 and other CS3 apps. So, akin to the Adobe License Manager of earlier products, I’d expect to see a failure upon launch of any CS3 product if FNPLicensingService.exe is disabled or removed.
I really dislike this type of spam in my services. Apple, Adobe, who do they think they are? Forgetting who owns the PC, indeed.
Testing with Flash and PS CS3 shows no effect from disabling this little piece of junk in services, and no sign that it can automagically undisable itself. This isn’t a Microsoft product, after all.
On occasion, when the Distiller gets opened, it comes up with this box that says Acrobat is not ACTIVATED (even though it is), and won’t let me use Distiller until I "activate". Sometimes I hit retry and it works, but sometimes I have to open Acrobat, wait for the Help > Activation menu to turn into Help > Licensing and then open Distiller again.
Now is this because FNP is trying to "call home" and verify but cannot (because there is no net access on this box) in which case I should just stop it from running, or is it because FNP needs to run????
Now is this because FNP is trying to "call home" and verify but cannot (because there is no net access on this box) in which case I should just stop it from running, or is it because FNP needs to run????
TAFO! 🙂
(try and find out!) worst that can happen is it refuses to run and you need to reenable it.
Actually, I just did try it. I used one of the many ways to stop FNPlicensingservice.exe from running. It turns out that Distiller shows the message when this isn’t running and Acrobat completely crashes when it’s not running.
So in my case, it appears that FNPlicensingservice needs to run. And I’m assuming that it does its own internal verification and authentication since I do not have any Internet access on this server.
While I’m not using Acrobat 8, at least the conventional way that licensing processes work is as you described…it is simply a localized verification that would become corrupted if you attempted to disable any of the processes used by that activity. So, I’m not surprised you’d get the activation error messages that you’ve seen, as the same was true with the Adobe LM Service of CS2. As in Hopper’s original posts, I think the biggest problem is that the licensing service remains active even when all affected Adobe apps have been closed; it should be a service that goes active only while one or more Adobe apps are open, and exit once the last app is closed down. If you find it still active after you’ve closed your Adobe apps, you should be able to kill the process in your Task Manager list without any negative impact, but it will relaunch with the next use of an Adobe product that uses activation.
actually Dave, "hacking" was a term originally coined to denote the actions of every day programmers who create and edit code for a living, but thanks for posting absolutely nothing relevant to the issue at hand.
am seeing a similar FNPLicensingService notation in console when Adobe Bridge CS3 fails to open (as in it never opens – clicking on it directly, switching to it from Photoshop, attempts at launching it from right-clicked images, etc.) anyone seen this?
actually Dave, "hacking" was a term originally coined to denote the actions of every day programmers who create and edit code for a living
actually it was a term to describe guys who played with trains and door locks, who soon moved on to old school mini-computers (the pdp11 for example). i like trains. 🙂
(google tech model railroad club)
but thanks for posting absolutely nothing relevant to the issue at hand.
no problems. happy to be useless. 😉
have a great friday! play with some trains. learn stuff.
am seeing a similar FNPLicensingService notation in console when Adobe Bridge CS3 fails to open (as in it never opens – clicking on it directly, switching to it from Photoshop, attempts at launching it from right-clicked images, etc.) anyone seen this?
cant open bridge to reset prefs. there doesnt appear to be a file that can accomplish this from outside the application. tossed Adobe Bridge Panel Preferences.xml and Adobe Bridge Metadata Preferences.abdata with no luck and also whacked the last workspace files to force a rebuild there.
dont think it ever gets to that point. it acts more like there is a something blocking the application from even launching – not crashing immediately after like one might expect from a preference issue.
it acts more like there is a something blocking the application from even launching –
firewall? windows firewall or otherwise?
there’s a key combo for the bridge prefs. i think it’s hold shift or crtl-alt or something and start the app, but i could be wrong, i’m not at my ps machine.
maybe someone here can pop in what the key combo is to reset the bridge prefs (i don’t think it’s the same as ps’ crtl-alt-shift thing)…
dave, on a Mac. did a Cmd+Shift+Opt start of bridge and reset everything. still doesnt launch. will try the other forum. thx
have CS3 set to get updates every time i boot up, checked anyway and seem to be current on updates (launched the everything-in-CS3-updater from Photoshop and it found nothing to update).
Lewis, this is the Photoshop Windows forum! If you try the Bridge forum use the Mac one if that’s what you are on.
Dave was too polite to mention that he is a full-time professional programmer and does’t need telling what a hacker is.
Regarding Bridge preferences, it appears that, up to CS2, Bridge prefs were reset from a dialog called up with Ctrl+Shift+Alt. In CS3 you have to hold down Ctrl while starting to get the dialog.
UPDATE on How To Remove FNPLicensingService by SIRBRENT
After, renaming all FNP_Act_Installer.dll (it dependens of how many Adobe product did you get installed) , instead of DISABLING FNPLicensingService rather choose to MANUAL startup type. You can do that like this Run – (type)services.msc (hit OK)- double click on FLEXnet Licensing Service – (under Startup Type choose) MANUAL
Choose MANUAL rather than DISABLING FNPLicensingService. DISABLING it makes all adobe products dysfunctional, and they are giving the error with message to reinstall Adobe products… When you put this service to MANUAL, it not starts up with a Windows make it Boot UP really slow, especially with new Service Pack 3 installed on machine…
After doing thus after restart you might (or rather will) get some messages from Acrotry.exe: "This application has failed to start because FNP_Act_Installer.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"
To get rid of this message do this
ADDITIONALY you can use Microsoft’s Autorun to DISABLE FROM AUTORUN Adobe Acrobat Assistant (uncheck the box): Under: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Accrobat Assistant 8.0 aka (acrotry.exe)
Autoruns is official Microsoft product used to survey whats runs on your machine.It runs without installing ,with only 470kb in it.. 🙂 Unchecking this files, your PC will Boot up much faster and your Adobe Acrobat product will not lose any of its functionality yet still be fast enough…
You are free to test it.Even if something goes wrong you can still use Autorun and check those boxes again!
‘appy Adobing! 🙂
well it looks like this new stuff Bonjour service and this new FNPLicensingService are her to bother and to annoy…Ok they are here to for what they are, but its slowing the boot time of PC worth of it? I don’t think so…
FNPLicensingService is normally setup as MANUAL. What keeps it running is "acrotray.exe" which is a helper process for Distiller. If you don’t use distiller, then go into the registry and delete (or just change) HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Run value. I changed it from "C:\Program Files\…" to "X:\Program Files\…" and it keeps FNP… from running on and on and on …
This Abode stuff is pure do-do. If you really need to produce Adobe PDF files, simply install Open Office ver 3.0 or later. It allows a user to export any file readable by Open Office (which by far is the most compatible program available, (much more capable of reading foreign files than anyone else, including Microsoft office version 2008)). And best of all. Its free! Even if you only use it as a tool when you need to read a newer Microsoft file that your Microsoft Office will not read, or you need to read the new office open format from Microsoft, or as I suggest… you need to produce PDF files.
Use it and tell Microsoft and Adobe to "hit the road"
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