My wife is putting together a video for her brother’s wedding, so I purchased Adobe Premiere Elements 7, at the recommendation of Blake Caraway.  After some frustration that the serial number I was granted did not work, I tried to get it to work on my laptop just to be sure I wasn’t screwing it up somehow.

I tried to install it on my laptop, and the installer bombed saying that D: is an invalid path.  I’m not sure why it cares, and it just so happens that I don’t keep a CD drive in my laptop.  I opt instead for an extra battery.  This leaves my computer without a D: drive.  Apparantly, Adobe’s installer was NEVER tested with a basic computer that only has a c: drive.  And somehow the installer logic fails when looking for the D: drive.

The experience just trying to BUY the software is very frustrating.  I can’t even get the point of USING it.  Tomorrow I’ll have to spend time on the phone with “Keith” from their India call center just to get them to give me a serial number that will actually work.  I’m sure the software is actually fantastic.  It’s a bummer that is takes so much effort just to discover that.

Software testing is SOOO important.  The testing environment should closely match the target environment.  In fact, it should be even more restrictive.