Adobe Acrobat X Enterprise Deployment on terminal server

Report · Feb 04, 2011

I'm installing Adobe Acrobat X on our new Remote Desktop Services server (formerly terminal server), which is Windows Server 2008 R2. I have read about customizing some of the adobe preferences in order to optimize the user's experience in a terminal server session. I'd like to change some of these settings for every user that logs into the server, and have those settings write back to their user registry permanently.

Basically, we're using roaming profiles when the user's login to the terminal server. I know I could probably write a script to manually change the appropriate reg keys for Adobe Acrobat settings, but I was wondering if there is an easier way. I've read about the customization tool, but I think that only applies to a local desktop scenario, where only one user will be logging in? In my case, Adobe is installed once as an administrator on the server, and many users login. If I use the customization wizard to create a custom install of Acrobat X, with all my preferred preference changes, will the users inherit those registry settings?

The settings I want for every user are:

Page Display

Zoom: 80%

Resolution: Use System Setting (96 pixels/in)

Smooth Text: None

General

Do not show edit warnings: enabled

Show me messages when I launch Acrobat: disabled

Show Splash Screen: disabled

Online Services

use Share Pane when sending email attachment: Disabled

Always connect when opening documents enabled for live collaboration: disabled

Updater

Do not download or install updates automatically

What is the recommendation for this scenario?

Thanks,

Jon Wooten

Report · Feb 04, 2011

Hi Jon,

The Wizard customizes the installed application. If you customize the app that's installed on the server and that's the app the user is using, their experience would be defined by that app's settings wouldn't it? I don't understand why you want to write settings locally for each user.

Ben

Report · Feb 04, 2011

I'm not sure about the wizard, but basically the settings are per user. If I log into the computer as local administrator, change the preferences, and then log in as either a local user or user with roaming profile, then the settings are not propogated. Each user has their own Adobe Acrobat settings within HKCU registry hive. Now maybe the customization tool does something different to tackle that problem, but I'm not sure.

If the wizard writes the changes to the HKLM registry hive, then I could see all the users inheriting the changes.

Report · Feb 04, 2011

I get it. The wiz doesn't do what you want. Acrobat also does not support Roaming Profiles. However,

it seems like there should be a way to do what you want to do.

Report · Feb 08, 2011

From customization wizard(CW) you can not customize these settings.

Moreover, it's not that CW stores all the customizations in HKLM. Some customizations are stored in HKCU also.

Report · Feb 08, 2011

I ended up using a RegDiff program to find out which keys in HKCU I needed to change. I then just put those key changes in my Group Policy. So now all the users who log into the terminal server get the same preferences every time. Problem solved.