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Getting ColdFusion 8/9 downloads (with Verity): ways that may work even after today

Posted At : May 31, 2012 2:45 PM | Posted By : Charlie Arehart
Related Categories: cf9, cf8, admin, cf10
Comments: (16)
Note: This blog post is from 2012. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

By now most in the CF world (who are connected to community news, at least) should have heard that today is the last day Adobe will be offering a release of CF 9 including Verity, and CF8 at all. I offer here a little more news on that, but more important I offer how you can still find and get those downloads if you want them, even when no longer listed as links on the site. They're now no longer easy to find.

(And I have updated the entry as of Aug 3, 2012, and all below still applies, unless stricken out.)

First, as for what's changing, it's that Adobe has to "pull from the shelves" any releases of CF that include Verity. But while many have been asserting that CF9 was going away, that's not true. And even CF8 can be obtained formally under certain conditions.

But I also offer here some ways you may be able to get these files even if Adobe no longer offers links to them.

But let's tackle a few points of common misinformation this week.

CF9 WILL be available after today, as 9.0.2, without Verity

So first and foremost, after today you WILL be able to get CF9, including the free Developer edition, as well as for trial or paid use, but it will just be without Verity. That will be a new release, 9.0.2 (not 9.2 as some have referred to it, which could be a helpful distinction to bear in mind).

More than that, it will be more than just "9.0.1 without Verity". 9.0.2 will also include hotfixes and security hotfixes, as well as an updated JVM (to 1.6.0_29).

All this, including the removal of 9.0, 9.0.1, and 8, with the addition of 9.0.2, is clarified in a couple posts from the CF team:

Availability of ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 8 installers and "Availability of ColdFusion 9"

CF9.0, 9.0.1, and 8 WILL be available after today, with Verity, if you have a support contract

Those blog entries also clarify that yes, CF8 (and even CF9 with Verity) WILL also be available even after today--to those with support contracts, by direct contact to Adobe; just no longer by direct download from their site.

(I'll add that the that CF team blog has offered quite a lot of useful info in recent days and weeks, especially about CF10 but also about other things, so I'd recommend people keep an eye on it.)

Finding older release Updater installers to download

Finally, as for getting the CF8 downloads, note that any links to the CF8 downloads have already been pulled from pages that had previously listed them. But that does not mean that the files are not there (at least as of today).

Using your browser's download history

So, how might one find the URLs to the actual installer downloads? There are two ways.

First, and perhaps quickest, is that if you may have downloaded the files in the past, then I'll remind folks to check their browser's "downloads" feature (available in most modern browsers, whether via a tools menu or the Ctrl+J shortcut). In those (again in most modern browsers) there is not only a list of all files you've downloaded (unless you've cleared the list), but also you can right-click on the downloaded file to go to or get the link for the URL from which it was downloaded. More than that, most of these browser download pages have a search feature. I searched for coldfusion and found some of them, and they still worked (today).

Using archive.org to find old pages that linked to the downloads, to get the installer URLs

But what if you don't have that download or a browser that's tracking it?

Well, that's where the good old "internet wayback machine" at archive.org can come in so handy.

If you know the URL for an Adobe page that did previously have links to the downloads, you might find an older version of the page there (whether from earlier this year or last year) and could then use that find the downloader URL.

(As an aside, the archive.org page may even have a link to an old file even when the file no longer exists on the site in question.)

So for instance, the updates page for CF lists CF updaters and hotfixes, and it used to (until recently) list them going back to even 4.5.2! :-) But it now lists only 10 and 9. Release the wayback machine!

Searching there for that URL, I found an old version of the page from last year.

And sure enough, there you can see all the references to the older releases, such as the 8.0.1 updater for Windows (seems to be for 32- or 64-bit, as there is only the one).

But note that URL offers a link to the file as it is found on the archive.org site, not Adobe's. Sadly, that fails to work (because they say that the robots.txt file on the Adobe site prevented them archiving it). Often these archived download links do work. In this case, it does not.

But all hope is not lost. Note that the URL also includes the URL that the file USED to be at on the destination server:

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/coldfusion/updates/801/coldfusion-801-win_updater.exe

And I checked and can confirm that, as of today at least, it responds.

Folks can see on that archive.org page links to all the other downloads that were available then, and again for now still are, today, for example:

And though that last exe was NOT available via the archive.org site itself, I'll just say that it's always worth trying, because sometimes (and on some other older variants of the web page that it may offer), the link may work. Maybe an older version of the page got the file archived before the robots.txt was put in place, for instance.

Finding full installer downloads

Finding full installers downloads for 9.0, 8.0.1, etc. is going to be harder. There is no one page that is publicly available (that archive.org could have archived) that lists all the URLs for older versions.

I can say that I had some in my download history, which do still work as of today no longer work directly, but do work if you first login to the Adobe downloads site, such as using a link to download a current version of CF. Then, once logged in, a link like these below do still work (as of Aug 2012):

For CF 9.0: (I added this update based on info shared here.) Again, for these to work, you must first login to the Adobe downloads site, such as using a link to download a current version of CF. Then, once logged in, a link like these below will work:

But these all may soon be gone

Then again, I realize it's possible that Adobe may actually pull the files down so that they cannot be accessed this way anymore, after May 31. It's just not clear if they would feel that their mandate (per Verity) is to "not offer download links" or "not allow downloads at all". We shall see. (I've updated this entry as of 8/3/12 and the info above still stands unless stricken out.)

I appreciate that some may feel that my posting this only increases the chance that Adobe may "close the door", but given that someone have asked desperately how to get the files now, and since they ARE there for now, I thought it more important to offer the info now given that the door may be closed tomorrow.

Help from Others?

But maybe others can chime in with URLs for other variants.

Update: In fact, someone else had tried to offer the same help. David Epler had done a similar blog post the same day, and offered specific links to some files. Most of them are also now dead, but has he notes also in comments you may still be able to get things to work, like I do above.

Also, here's still another blog entry that offers links to many different Adobe products, including CF 7 and 9 (but oddly, not 8, nor 9.0.1). You may find something else you need there, or see a pattern to try.

Hope this is helpful.

For more content like this from Charlie Arehart: Need more help with problems?
  • If you may prefer direct help, rather than digging around here/elsewhere or via comments, he can help via his online consulting services
  • See that page for more on how he can help a) over the web, safely and securely, b) usually very quickly, c) teaching you along the way, and d) with satisfaction guaranteed
Comments (16)
Comments
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Charlie,

Thank you for providing a much better explanation, really what Adobe should have communicated from the start. The links you have under Finding full installer downloads that are CF 9.0.1 are for Update 1 which requires 9.0.0 to be installed first. I have updated my post from earlier today will all the links to download full installers for 8.0.1 and 9.0.0 from trials.adobe.com

http://www.dcepler.n...

Again with your caveat, they all could just disappear, but the were all working as of 7:30pm EDT May 31.
# Posted By David Epler | 5/31/12 7:36 PM
Wow, David, I didn't know you'd done such a similar entry, or I would certainly just have pointed to yours. Great minds, I guess. :-)

Thanks for the note about my listing the updaters under full installers. That was just a mistake of editing. I was focused first on the 801 installer I had, then I grabbed some more but forgot they were updaters and this list was under full installers. I've moved them up to the "updaters" section.

But your list is great, and I recommend people go there! As we both said, though, it's iffy how much longer they'll be there at all. Maybe someone will post a dropbox or other location that they may be willing to sacrifice for the cause. :-)

And lest anyone think there's something wrong with that, I wouldn't think so. Adobe is no longer allowed to offer them. That doesn't mean others can't. And to be clear, these are all installers that require a valid license key to use in production, so there's nothing fishy about offering the installers separate from what Adobe would.

But David and I are focused (for now) on simply helping point where they are, at Adobe, for however long they may be there. :-)
# Posted By charlie arehart | 5/31/12 9:48 PM
Charlie,

Thanks. The true genesis of my post though was that I needed to get the CF 8 Update 1 for a server at work a few days ago and had to dig for it. But yes great minds.

Actually I was already thinking of throwing them all up some place when they vanish, but as of 7:50am EDT June 1st all the installer links on my post still functioned from Adobe.
# Posted By David Epler | 6/1/12 7:59 AM
hello Charlie , one major reason why i really need the coldfusion8 setup is because a major application i developed runs on it, but unfortunately, i lost the cf8 setup when the system crashed . Currently, the application does not run on cf9 and cf10 , possibly due to some Ajax functionalities i cannot resolve at all . i used a lot of cflayout and cflayoutarea to design the application , and i think some of the javascript libraries might not be compatible with post-cf8 editions. kindly help as the only reasonable option is for me to install a cf8 server . thank you
# Posted By tunji | 9/11/12 4:44 AM
@tunji, are you saying you want the CF8 installer? I can only recommend that you try out the links that I and David Epler have offered, to recover it from places where it may still exist.

As for your app not running on CF 9 or 10, I'm a bit surprised to hear that. I'm not aware of any major compatibility changes. I will propose that people often end up finding their apps broken when CF hotfixes (individual, cumulative, or security) have been applied to their server - - or, should I say, misapplied. It's easy for things to get busted - - and the result is that apps that used to work now no longer do. I discussed this more in a blog entry: http://www.carehart.... Hope that may help.
# Posted By Charlie Arehart | 9/11/12 8:23 AM
Hi Charlie,

I Have gone through your blog. Its sound good and lot of info is available regarding hot fixes and functionality of CFs with different Versions. We need small help from you to download CF8.0.1. We need CF 8.0.1 Windows 64-bit full installer download, provided link is not working. We need this to install in my 64-bit test Environment to test upgrade CF8 to CF9.0.2. Please share the link.

Thanks in Advance.
# Posted By Venkataramana Rao | 5/31/13 5:09 AM
A quick thank you - The links are still working. Saved me a big headache.

Again, Thanks
# Posted By DesktopJ | 10/4/13 10:00 AM
Thank you so much for that list! After almost a week of looking, I can finally set up an environment for integration testing.

I was just hired to support a website using a host that still has them on CF8. At the time of this writing, CF9 and CF10 are both still available via Adobe's website, but CF8 is not. Since they're "renting" the license as part of the hosting, there isn't a support contract directly with Adobe, and I couldn't convince the host to follow the path through Adobe support to get the download. I was lucky to find this post.
# Posted By Price | 3/3/14 10:51 AM
Gavin has also started an 'archive' of old installers: http://www.gpickin.c...
# Posted By Jim Priest | 4/3/14 9:14 AM
@Jim, thanks for that. Seems interesting. Good thing to add here for folks to consider going forward. Much appreciated, and good work, Gavin.
# Posted By Charlie Arehart | 4/5/14 5:40 PM
I had to locate an 8.0.1 installer. Found it in the Wayback Machine at: http://web.archive.o...://trials.adobe.com/Applications/ColdFusion/801WWE/coldfusion-801-win64.exe

Much appreciation to you and Gavin for the efforts.
# Posted By RayV | 9/22/14 1:13 PM
@Ray, but did you not find it at Gavin's site? Since you mention him in your comment, I'd think you saw his repo. Are you saying something you wanted wasn't there?

BTW, the best URL to note going forward for his repo (of current and former CF installers) is:

http://www.gpickin.c...

We used to have a tinyurl pointing to it, but the host who runs the place where he holds the file (copy.com) changed the first URL the tinyurl pointed to, and sadly you can't change a tinyurl once it's created. I did create a new one:

http://tinyurl.com/c...

That's just hackey looking, so I offer Gavin's URL above, which was his way to ensure that there's always a URL that works.
# Posted By charlie arehart | 9/22/14 3:17 PM
As an update to my comment above from earlier this year, I have created yet another shortened URL for Gavin's repo:

http://bit.ly.com/cf...

For more info, see my previous comment from 9/22/14 above for more on this, or a new blog entry I just posted: http://www.carehart....
# Posted By charlie arehart | 10/30/14 9:03 AM
Finding full installer downloads paragraph recommendations do work as of today ;o)
# Posted By Mikhail | 11/13/17 7:13 PM
Charlie,
I know this was written 9 years ago, but it's just saved my bacon - I haven't used CF in about 8-9 years now, but since I've got experience I was called in to help on a crashed Linux server and rebuild a new one, but as the license is for CF8, getting an older version was pretty much impossible

Anyways, not spoken to you in YEARS, and I'm glad your blog is as useful as it's always been :)

Phil
# Posted By Phil Arnold | 5/3/21 10:51 AM
Phil, thanks for the kind regards. And yep, I leave my posts up because they can often still be valuable even more than a decade later (heck, I have some from the 90's on my older blog that are as relevant today as then). :-)

But with time does come a need to change some URLs. And the CFML Repo (created so many years ago by Gavin Pickin, and still supported by him and others in the community) is now at http://www.cfmlrepo.... . The gpickin.com links above no longer work, and sadly the bit.ly links can't be changed to point to the new location (without my paying for a subscription, which is not worth it in this case).

Hope that helps other readers who may find this going forward.
# Posted By charlie arehart | 5/3/21 11:12 AM
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