When a new operating system arrives like Snow Leopard or Windows 7 the opportunity to start fresh can be irresistible. The slightly more tech-oriented among us can wipe a drive clean and install only the essentials from scratch eliminating all of the detritus that accrues on our computers over time in a virtual spring cleaning. Over the weekend a number of our friends in the photography community did just that with Snow Leopard. Apparently, the overwhelming behavior was to reach for the box of Lightroom 2 on the shelf and insert that shiny hybrid CD-ROM into the drive and start fresh. Unfortunately, due to an issue with our Lightroom 2.0 installer the installation fails to complete on Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard. We caught and fixed this problem with a little help from Apple in our Lightroom 2.1 update. (We also updated the CD-ROM in the box to Lightroom 2.3 when it was released in March of this year)
The basic lesson is that whenever you’re performing a “clean install” of Lightroom on a new system the only reason to reach for the box is to retrieve your serial number. It’s typically faster to download our latest update from Adobe.com.(http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/) Each version of Lightroom we provide(2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc) is a complete version of the product updated with the latest bug fixes and camera support. We’ve tried to keep these installation files small for quick downloads. The Mac version weighs in at ~69MB and the Windows at ~135MB. Some products may require you to install the “dot-O” version before patching it repeatedly with updates but Lightroom is *not* that kind of application.
Good luck with your fresh start on Snow Leopard or Windows 7.