Upgrading Image Processing Software

I recently experienced some issues with an upgrade to Lightroom 6.14 from version 4.4 and stumbled upon a fairly simple fix to several problems. I run a home built Windows 10 system with an AMD Firepro W2100 video card so the issues described here pertain to a Windows 10 system. Whenever you upgrade Lightroom, always backup the catalog. Also, update and test out the video card driver before moving onto the upgrade. I discovered that version 6.0 installed perfectly and worked without any issues. The madness began with version 6.14. After extracting the program files, the installation program opened, but hung up and did not install the package. Suggestions provided on the Adobe forum included deleting version 6 and re-installing and or using Adobe Cleaner to remove other portions of the installed software. I do not trust cleaning software as many programs share different files and may cause more of a problem later on. deleting the program is a waste of time and LR 6.0 worked perfectly. So after tinkering with the installation, I tested the installation program by running it in Windows 7.0 compatibility mode. The program hung up and I used Task Manager to close the program. I then ran the installation program which uses a 32 bit version of Adobe Application Manager and version 6.14 installed without an issue. My guess is that the problem arises from a 32 bit installation program does not want to play nice with my 64 bit operating system. Lightroom 6.14 would shut down when in the development mode or when the entire catalog was being loaded. Unchecking GPU Acceleration provided a temporary fix. Going into the advanced features of my graphics card’s software, I turned on Vertical Sync and Triple Buffering and LR 6.14 works perfectly. GPU acceleration is not essential for Lightroom to run, but may affect performance issues. Adobe software has a history of unresolved issues with graphics card compatibility so be careful when doing hardware or software upgrades for your computer. Similar issues also occur in apple systems too. Photoshop can use 10 bit color, but Lightroom still uses 8 bit color for rendering graphics so the differences gained in using 10 bit graphics is only realized with Photoshop. In conclusion, If upgrading to Lightroom 6 or the creative cloud series, any problems that you encounter can be fixed so that you can spend more time processing photos rather than suffering through upgrade woes.

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