Adobe Constantly Taking Over - Enterprise

Report · Apr 11, 2019

Hello,

I work in an enterprise environment as our System Center administrator, so I push out Application installs and software updates in an automated manner. My question pertains to Adobe Reader DC and how it reacts with other professional Reader programs. Due to the high cost of Adobe Acrobat Pro, we have opted to use Acrobat Reader DC (the free version) for people who don't need to edit, sign or convert; and Nitro Pro for users who do.

However, whenever I push out an adobe update, it constantly tries to take over as the default. So basically now, every time I push out an Acrobat install, I have it repair Nitro right after that, which makes it take back over as default - simple enough.

My next problem arises with the two Internet explorer add-ins conflicting with each other. As of right now, I just had at least 5 computers who couldn't open attachments through CRM, because the Adobe Add-in re-enabled itself. I checked all of my deployments, and none of these users are getting any Nitro or Adobe software pushed to them - they haven't had a change in their PDF software in at least two weeks.

Is it possible that a security update for Flash would be so invasive as to re-enable the Acrobat Reader add-in? Were there any March or April Windows Updates that contained fixes for Adobe, that would re-enable the update? Reader is acting like a drunk guy at a night club, it just doesn't know how to say no. No means no adobe!

Okay seriously though, has anybody seen similar behavior?

Report · Apr 11, 2019

Hi Matthew,

You seem to be using "Adobe", "Reader", and "Acrobat" as synonyms here. It seems like you don't have Acrobat, so I'm not sure what "push out an Acrobat install" means. "it" (an Acrobat or any Adobe product) cannot repair a non-Adobe product.

If you only have Acrobat Reader (formerly Adobe Reader) and you don't want a Reader update to result in changing the default PDF viewer when there's a 3rd party product installed (in this case Nitro). You should be able to do that via one of the methods described here: . Setting the Default PDF Viewer — DC Deployment Planning and Configuration.

Flash has nothing to do with Acrobat or Reader at this point. They were decoupled a long time ago.

While there was an update pushed Tuesday, you say you're managing updates via SCCM, so the first question is: Does the add in behavior change immediately after you push?

Report · Apr 12, 2019

Hi Staff,

My apologies on the terminology - We only use Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, currently most of our users are on version 19.010.20099, and then Nitro Pro 12 for our users who need to edit, convert, and e-sign.

So my application installs Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and then runs a repair of Nitro. The Nitro repair sets Nitro back to the default, but the problem is that Acrobat seems to reenable the IE add-in, and that causes PDF's opened from CRM to not work properly. Usually, they end up clicking a PDF from CRM, and it will open up a blank page with an X in the corner. Disabling the Adobe Add-in always seems to fix this.

The odd thing is though, that I edited the .MSI with the Acrobat Customization Wizard DC, and I do have the option selected that says "Installer will decide which product will be the default," so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why it even sets itself as the default in the first place (picture 1). I wish there was an option that said "Do not set as default" (I'm not quite sure what logic the installer users to decide what should be default). Again though, not the biggest deal in the world because it's more the IE add-in that's giving me issues now, I just wanted to bring it up as something to possibly change moving forward.

And then, I don't see an option in the customization wizard to disable the IE add-in, am I missing it or does it not exist?

Report · Apr 12, 2019

After a bit more thought, I'm pretty sure if you can tell me what registries entries control the add-in, I could just use the Adobe Customization Wizard to delete those keys and therefore keep the add-in from enabling. Thoughts?

Report · Apr 12, 2019

Let's get the easy item out of the way: The Wiz knows nothing about 3rd party products. The settings you mention above are relevant when both Acrobat and Reader are installed and one or the other should be the preferred viewer.

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I don't have IE installed, so I can't test it, but it appears this pref should do the trick:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{CA8A9780-280D-11CF-A24D-444553540000}

Create a DWORD pref named Flags and set the value to 1.