Adobe CS3 vs. Safari 3 Beta: blank installer alert message

I am currently struggling with Adobe Creative Suite 3 on my Intel iMac. For an as yet unknown reason, Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional cannot update itself and complains about modifications being made to its installation. While this problem is a matter by itself, I stumbled upon a different issue during my attempts to fix the problem together with Adobe Support: I ended up getting a blank installer alert window (see screenshot below) when I tried to re-install the full CS3 suite.

A little background information about my setup:

• Intel iMac, Core Duo
• Mac OS X 10.4.10
• Adobe Creative Suite CS3

Screenshot: Adobe CS3 vs. Safari 3 Beta – blank installer alert message

The screenshot shows the Adobe installer in the background, and an empty message box titled “Installer Alert” in the foreground. You can’t close the window by normal means (no buttons there!), and even quitting via the menu bar or Command-Q does not work – you have to Force Quit the Adobe installer.

The problem is already known at Adobe: if you have Safari 3 Beta on your system, installing Adobe CS3 will not work. There seems to be some kind of compatibility issue, but strangely it does not affect all Macs with Safari 3 Beta.

If you run into the problem, try the following:

• Remove Safari 3 Beta with its own Uninstaller application (it’s included in the Safari 3 Beta download, get it again if you don’t have it anymore).
• Uninstall Adobe CS3 with its own Uninstaller
• Restart your computer (optional, not needed for me)
• Install Adobe CS3.
• If you still want to use Safari 3 Beta, you can re-install it at this point.

Hope this helps!