Macromedia Extension Manager

Macromedia Extension Manager, later known as Adobe Extension Manager, was a series of utilities provided by Macromedia, and then Adobe, to manage software extensions for Dreamweaver and their respective Studio applications.

Product history
Macromedia Extension Manager 1.0 was originally developed by Macromedia to support extensions for Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 that were downloaded through Macromedia Exchange, which was launched in April 2000. Files to be installed were prepared as Macromedia Extension Installation (.mxi) files packaged into a Macromedia Extension Package (.mxp).


 * Macromedia Extension Manager 1.1 added support for Dreamweaver UltraDev 1.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager 1.2 added support for Flash 5.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager 1.3 fixed a bug that could allow an installed extension to damage menus.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager 1.4 added support for Flash MX and Mac OS X.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager MX (1.5) supported apps from Macromedia Studio MX.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager MX 2004 (1.6) supported apps from Macromedia Studio MX 2004.
 * Macromedia Extension Manager 8 (1.7) supported apps from Macromedia Studio 8.

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems in December 2005. The software utility was renamed to Adobe Extension Manager and its functionality was expanded to support Creative Suite applications. The .mxp package format was superseded by Adobe Zip Format Extension Package (.zxp) in CS5.5.


 * Adobe Extension Manager CS3 (1.8) supported apps from Adobe Creative Suite 3.
 * Adobe Extension Manager CS4 (2.0) supported apps from Adobe Creative Suite 4.
 * Adobe Extension Manager CS5 supported apps from Adobe Creative Suite 5.
 * Adobe Extension Manager CS5.5 supported apps from Adobe Creative Suite 5.5.
 * Adobe Extension Manager CS6 supported apps from Adobe Creative Suite 6.
 * Adobe Extension Manager CC (7.0) supported apps from Adobe Creative Cloud. CC 7.2 added support for CC 2014 apps. Extension Manager CC 7.3.2 was the final release.

Support for Extension Manager was phased out with CC 2015 apps. Its functionality was built directly into Adobe Creative Cloud app and Adobe Exchange now functions as the marketplace for extensions and presets.

Articles

 * What Is the Adobe Extension Manager? by Lauren Miller at Techwalla (2015-03-31)