RE: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Jim Dandy]

> I wrote an article on generating the customized MSI you need to push
out
> Acrobat Reader 9 and another for 9.1.  The same process works for all
> versions of Acrobat.  I tested with both Acrobat Reader and Pro.
> 
> http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=10082
> 
> Did you know that you are required to sign up for the Adobe
Distribution
> License if you are going to push out any Adobe product on your
network?

I have a distribution license for Adobe Reader.  Do I have to sign up
for another one for Adobe Pro?

> Webster

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Jonathan Link]

Keywords and prhases.
That depends.
Effecitvely.

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Ben Scott  wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 8:46 AM, Jonathan Link 
> wrote:
> > If you software deployment outlives the life cycle of the machine ...
>
>  Typically our machines outlive the support life of the software they
> run.  We've got ten year old computers still in service.  They work
> just fine for the tasks they're performing, but we've either had to
> upgrade Microsoft Windows or run unsupported.
>
>  If we were the sort of company that got rid of computers after three
> years, then sure, it wouldn't make sense to buy OEM software.  Of
> course, for Microsoft Windows, one still *has* to buy OEM software (or
> FPP), since the volume licenses are upgrade only.
>
> > You also lose the ability to effectively ugprade software throughout your
> > organization ...
>
>  Eh?  I don't see that.  If we need to upgrade, we need to purchase
> the new version, regardless of whether we bought the software with the
> computer or independently.
>
> -- Ben
>
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
> ~   ~
>

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Ben Scott]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 8:46 AM, Jonathan Link  wrote:
> If you software deployment outlives the life cycle of the machine ...

  Typically our machines outlive the support life of the software they
run.  We've got ten year old computers still in service.  They work
just fine for the tasks they're performing, but we've either had to
upgrade Microsoft Windows or run unsupported.

  If we were the sort of company that got rid of computers after three
years, then sure, it wouldn't make sense to buy OEM software.  Of
course, for Microsoft Windows, one still *has* to buy OEM software (or
FPP), since the volume licenses are upgrade only.

> You also lose the ability to effectively ugprade software throughout your
> organization ...

  Eh?  I don't see that.  If we need to upgrade, we need to purchase
the new version, regardless of whether we bought the software with the
computer or independently.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Jonathan Link]

That depends.  Your software is OEM licensed, restricted to that machine.
Depending on your environment that might be good or bad.
If you software deployment outlives the life cycle of the machine, then
purchasing OEM software is not as good a deal as it appears on first blush.
You also lose the ability to effectively ugprade software throughout your
organization because your software purchase is tied to the machine purchase,
which in most organizations is staggered over several years.  Sure, you can
aways purchase a license of the new software, but you'll do so at that same
high price you avoided by buying OEM software, and in so doing have negated
any long term savings from purchasing software with the computer.

The last admin here was seduced by OEM software, or didn't know any better.
I had a heck of a time explaining that we need to purchase Office 2007
licenses and downgrade it to 2003, because the OEM software doesn't give us
those rights.


On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:51 PM, Ben Scott  wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Phil Brutsche 
> wrote:
> > You can use the same Reader customization wizard on Standard and
> > Professional to hard-code the product key in the transform.
>
>  Right, but since it requires activation, only the first install or
> two would work before running afoul of a "too many activations" error.
>  Or so I presume.
>
> > BTW you really should not have purchased the retail product here
>
>  Adobe Acrobat Standard + Microsoft Office Pro:
>
>  $350 = Purchased with a Dell computer
>  $650 = Purchased through volume licensing
>
>  So we should spend $300 per seat on this, eh?
>
> -- Ben
>
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
> ~   ~
>

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Phil Brutsche  wrote:
> You can use the same Reader customization wizard on Standard and
> Professional to hard-code the product key in the transform.

  Right, but since it requires activation, only the first install or
two would work before running afoul of a "too many activations" error.
 Or so I presume.

> BTW you really should not have purchased the retail product here

  Adobe Acrobat Standard + Microsoft Office Pro:

  $350 = Purchased with a Dell computer
  $650 = Purchased through volume licensing

  So we should spend $300 per seat on this, eh?

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

RE: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Mike Gill]

We have a few machines here running creative suite. I should have made an
exclusion for this group of PC's for the install of Reader, however in the
customization tool, there is an option for what to use if both Reader and
Acrobat are installed. I set it to use Acrobat. I think there is a bug,
because when you do this, Reader can no longer open PDF's in the browser. It
complains the plugin can't be used. Leaving the "installer to decide" leaves
this functionality intact. Just a FYI.

-- 
Mike Gill

-Original Message-
From: Webster [mailto:carlwebs...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 4:11 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Installing Acrobat with GP

> -Original Message-
> From: Jim Dandy [mailto:jda...@asmail.ucdavis.edu]
> Subject: Installing Acrobat with GP
> 
> Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?
> Thanks for your comments.

I wrote an article on generating the customized MSI you need to push out
Acrobat Reader 9 and another for 9.1.  The same process works for all
versions of Acrobat.  I tested with both Acrobat Reader and Pro.  

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=10082

Did you know that you are required to sign up for the Adobe Distribution
License if you are going to push out any Adobe product on your network?


Webster


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Phil Brutsche]

You can use the same Reader customization wizard on Standard and
Professional to hard-code the product key in the transform.

BTW you really should not have purchased the retail product here - going
the volume licensed route would have excluded you from needing to
perform activation.

Ben Scott wrote:
>   Acrobat proper (the payware PDF editor product) we can't do using
> GPO because it requires a serial number and activation.  Adobe is as
> bad as Microsoft for this.  Grrr.  We do at least have a script and a
> transform that makes the manual install as easy as possible.
> Fortunately, the free PDFCreator is good enough for what most people
> need.  :-)

-- 

Phil Brutsche
p...@optimumdata.com

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Jim Dandy  wrote:
> Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?

  We are pushing Adobe Reader 8 via GPO.  It works as well as anything
Adobe does.

  We use the "Adobe Customization Wizard" or whatever it's called to
make some changes.  For example, we disable the view-in-browser
functionality, and lock down execution of scripts and external files
and such.  The result transform has to be added as a "Modification" to
the GPO, using "Advanced publish or install".

  Upgrades are done by adding the new MSI package file to the GPO, and
letting it upgrade the existing package.  So it does an
uninstall-then-install-new.  Takes some time, but works well (so far).

  We had to write a script to install the language packs.  They don't
seem to install properly using GPO.  (They show up in "Add/Remove
Programs" on the target machines, they just don't work.)

  Acrobat proper (the payware PDF editor product) we can't do using
GPO because it requires a serial number and activation.  Adobe is as
bad as Microsoft for this.  Grrr.  We do at least have a script and a
transform that makes the manual install as easy as possible.
Fortunately, the free PDFCreator is good enough for what most people
need.  :-)

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

RE: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Webster]

> -Original Message-
> From: Jim Dandy [mailto:jda...@asmail.ucdavis.edu]
> Subject: Installing Acrobat with GP
> 
> Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?
> Thanks for your comments.

I wrote an article on generating the customized MSI you need to push out
Acrobat Reader 9 and another for 9.1.  The same process works for all
versions of Acrobat.  I tested with both Acrobat Reader and Pro.  

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=10082

Did you know that you are required to sign up for the Adobe Distribution
License if you are going to push out any Adobe product on your network?


Webster


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Jonathan Link]

I push Acrobat Standard just fine.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Eric Wittersheim <
eric.wittersh...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I push Acrobat reader just fine with GP.
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Jim Dandy wrote:
>
>> Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?
>> Thanks for your comments.
>>
>> Curt Finley
>>
>> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
>> ~   ~
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Re: Installing Acrobat with GP

[Eric Wittersheim]

I push Acrobat reader just fine with GP.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Jim Dandy wrote:

> Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> Curt Finley
>
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
> ~   ~
>
>

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

Installing Acrobat with GP

[Jim Dandy]

Is anyone pushing Acrobat with Group Policy?  If so, does it work well?
Thanks for your comments.

Curt Finley

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~