Hanging 10.1 Updates to Win7 Pro

[beerdini]

I am trying to deploy Acrobat X Pro to my office environment using Novell Zenworks Configuration Mangement Server using the same techniques that I used with previous versions Acrobat, but am having trouble with Windows 7 Pro x32 systems.  Deployment to XP machines works, but Win7 systems always have a popup window "Installing..." Acrobat ever time the application is executed.

My technique is that I create 2 deployable applications, the first is the base installation and the 2nd is all required service packs since the base installation.  This allows me to either deploy the latest patched version of the software to new systems from the start, or just deploy a patch update rollup if my systems fall out of being up to date.  Anyway, what is happening is that the base installation applies correctly from installation using the MSI and MST created using the Customization Wizard.  If I patched the first few patches, 10.0.1-10.0.3 I have no problems, but as soon as I patch 10.1.0 my Windows 7 systems keep getting the "Installing..." on launch every time.

I have tried completely uninstalling Acrobat X, verified that the Adobe is gone from Program Files, and have reinstalled from Disc instead of network share, and again as soon as I get to the 10.1 patch I get the same error.

In my environment I had originally upgraded from Acrobat 8 or 9 depending on if the system is running XP or Windows 7 since version 8 wasn't compatible (but worked) with Win7.  The original installation was set to remove any previous versions of Acrobat or Reader, but I did notice that in some cases the Adobe 8/9 folders were still present on some of the systems that are having this problem, but not all of them.  The only consistent factor is that they are all Windows 7 Pro x86 devices.

What I'm mainly wondering is if there is a registry key somewhere that needs to be reset on these systems that is making the system think that it is still first launch even when it is not that is making them "Install" each time that the program is launched.  Once opened the correct product version is showing, but it is bad for productivity when it takes 2-5 minutes to open Acrobat every time that you try to launch it.  Is there anything else that I can look at to try to determine why I am experiencing this issue?  Thanks!

[EnterpriseHelp]

Hi Beerdini,

You cannot install 10.1 over 10.<anything>. Updates are cumulative to the base release, and 10.1 should be installed over 10.0. Go here http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobatitinfo to get the admin guide, update quick key, or go to kb note 88814 to see the installer list. All resources indicate what the supported update order is.

Ben 

[beerdini]

Unfortunately I had already tried going direct from 10.0 (cd) to 10.1(patch) but that is where I originally experienced my problems.  Because of this is why I tested applying all of the 10.0.x patches before going to 10.1.  I also did redownload all 10.1.x patches to make sure that it wasn't a corrupted download causing my problems.  I've also looked through the admin guide that you had referenced and it appears that I'm using pretty much the same processes described except for the differences involved for making it work in a Zenworks environment.  As far as I can tell, the installation is successful, it is just something keeps triggering the application to try to "configure" itself every time that it is launched.  I've mostly seen behavior like this in XP if I tried to juggle between 2 different versions of Office on the same system and I changed the active version, except in this case on Windows 7 there are not multiple versions of Acrobat on the systems that are having problems.

[EnterpriseHelp]

Ok. I wouldn't bother testing 10.1 or 10.0.x as that's not supported. You can install 10.1.1 over 10.0 to get to the latest.

Of course, that probably doesn't solve your problem as you know. This is somewhat of a guess, but is Reader installed on the machine (including in the past) and/or are you doing anything with the default PDF viewer (handler) settings or properties? Changing the default PDF viewer invokes the installer.

Before you can troubleshoot this, you need to have a clean machine. Since older Acrobat products and an unsupported 10.x update order has existed on the machine, you should uninstall and manually clean up any files and registry items. I bet this problem does not appear on a new machine that's never seen a version of Acrobat before.

Ben

[beerdini]

You are correct, systems that are brand new installations vs ones being updated from a previous version of Acrobat are having the same issue.  We don't make any change from the default PDF settings from Adobe, but I did find something that I think might be the cause of my issues.

After digging through the Windows event logs, I found that during the installation whenever the Acrobat is launched is trying to write a registry key HKLM\software\mozillaplugins\adobe\path.  When I go to that registry key through regedit I find that on the adobe portion I am running into a permissions error that appears to be preventing the path key from being written.  I can't delete or change permission on the registry key folder.  Any ideas for what I should try to change that?

[beerdini · Accepted solution]

I figured out a resolution, but it doesn't fix my issue.  Since HKLM\software\mozillaplugins\adobe\path was locked and I was unable to do anything with the registry key, I uninstalled Acrobat X.  In doing so it removed the key.  I manually recreated the key, and then reinstalled Acrobat X.  Since I now had rights to the regisry key it installed without a problem.

I still don't know why this only affected machines that had a previous version of Acrobat installed, but at least I can get everyone on the same version now.

[EnterpriseHelp]

I've confirmed the Acrobat installer does not write to that location. Since this problem is not reported elsewhere, it looks like there is something unique about your environment that's causing the issue. I'm glad you have a workaround.

Ben

[rebateshut]

thanks...i was also looking for the same solution.