Welcome Screen Woes

Question

The basic issue: Dreamweaver/Flash hangs indefinitely at the
welcome screen after being opened and cannot be used/ must be
forced quit. I can’t click anything and certainly can use the
program.
My System:
Intel Mac Pro
Two 2.66 Ghz Intel Processors
2 GB Ram
ATI X1900 Card with 512 MB Memory
Internet Connection
Operating System: Mac OSX 10.4.9
How to produce the problem:
1. Ensure internet connection is enabled.
2. Open Dreamweaver
Results: Upon opening, Dreamweaver/Flash hangs indefinitely
at the welcome screen. All menus and tool bars load, but the
welcome screen displays a blank box at which point the cursor
spins, the program freezes and must be forced quit.
Normally the welcome screen should load quickly and display
the various document options as well as a link to adobe. (Assuming
an internet connection is available. If not, a static graphic
should be displayed in the lower right corner.) After extensive
trouble shooting I narrowed the problem down to the internet
connection. Without an internet connection (Ethernet cable
unplugged) the welcome screen loaded promptly and didn’t hang
however the link normally provided in the lower right hand corner
was missing since there was no internet available. The program then
ran normally.
When the internet was connected, the program would load up to
the welcome screen and then hang without displaying any options. No
menus were available and nothing could be done in the program. The
only solution at this point was to force quit.
I spoke with a tech support agent and worked through the
majority of the steps outlined here (
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=kb401096)
to no avail. As far as I can tell, the issue is caused by the
welcome screen failing to access the internet content necessary to
load. I was able to disable the welcome screen by disconnecting the
internet, opening Dreamweaver/Flash, disabling it via the options,
and then reconnecting the internet. However, this of course
prevents the use of the welcome screen, a feature I find useful.
Notes: The welcome screen for Illustrator and InDesign load
flawlessly and quickly and are not affected by the internet
connection.
Has anyone else experienced this? Adobe’s tech agent
told me it might be an issue with my internet, but I doubt that is
the case. I have submitted a bug report to adobe, but was curious
if anyone else had found a solution or had any idea why this is
happening. Why can Illustrator and InDesign load the web links and
not Flash and Dreamweaver.
I know the welcome screen is hardly a “necessary”
feature, but considering the price one pays for this software, it
would be nice if it worked.

Answer 1

I had this problem with both Photoshop and Illustrator. After several tries, I spoke with someone in Adobe tech Support who said it was a KNOWN ISSUE with the welcome screen and then took control of my computer, removed some files and now everything is fine. You have to talk to two different department, one for Illustrator and one for Photoshop for the fix. 6 phone calls and a total of about that many hours dealing with this BS. Epic, epic fail, Adobe.
The one thing I know for sure now, the Adobe staffers who work on these forums don't know what they're talking about.