Step 7 Professional 2021 / 5.7 tragedy

I made the fatal mistake of installing Step 7 Professional 2021 (5.7) via SUS. Only afterward I noticed a PDF pointing out that it requires Simatic S7-PM Project Messages. A license was included, but the software itself was not.

I am not using project messages but the setting prior to the upgrade seems important. If it was CPU-oriented, it's fine. If it was project-oriented, those projects now are read-only and the messaging can't be switched without that package. But the link in the PDF to article 109794089 leads to a 403 forbidden.

Also, it complains about Starter not being installed. I have version 5.4 hotfix 2, which seems to be the latest. I can also not open a project from within Starter. It just hangs.

It complains about WinCC Flexible not being installed. I have 2008 SP5 UPD2, which I believe to be the latest.

The entire Step 7 installation is pretty much trashed, so I will have to revert to a disk image.

Can anyone offer any insight? (I’ll contact Siemens as soon as I can, obviously.) Either way, I'd hold off on installing this. (I also received TIA v17 but I will hold off.)

As you expect no link is avaiable outside SUS, only for TIA V17, and this group, included safety, wincc and StartDrive, but for Step7 Professional nothing avaiable

Thanks

No doubt you've seen this link STEP 7 V5.7 / S7-GRAPH V5.7 / S7-SCL V5.7 / S7-PDIAG V5.7 / STEP 7 Professional 2021 Trial Download

Interestingly, the SHA256 hash for the Professional 2021 ISO matches the file I downloaded.

What is the issue that you're running into?

The problem I saw regarding projects becoming read-only is due to the messaging configuration. Since the setting project-oriented or CPU-oriented messaging cannot be changed I copied all objects to a new project, that has messaging configured as CPU-oriented.

I also had missing add-ons listed. Sometimes, this can be solved by executing a check, even though it says it is not needed. (Didn't work in this case for me.)

I have just installed my SUS software detailed above and the same has happened to me. I have repeatedly uninstalled and reinstalled Wincc Flexible and Starter (SIMOTION). The issue remains.

I have put a support request into siemens, If I get a solution I  will update this thread.

Thanks to you all for your comments.

Siemens Response:

Please see the link below as promised.

After installing STEP 7 V5.7, why do you get a message about missing options packages when starting STEP 7?
https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/109798574