InstallShield Tuner 6.0.1 creates corrupt MST files

Report · Feb 25, 2004

MST files for Acrobat 6.0 Professional, which are created with InstallShield Tuner 6.0.1, neither do work, nor can be loaded into Orca.

I remarked, that the file AcroPro.mst is destroyed when loading AcroPro.itw. If I fix it before creating a new project, it seems to work.

Has anybody found a better workaround, than to fix AcroPro.mst, every time after starting InstallShield Tuner 6.0.1?

Has anybody a copy of InstallShield Tuner 6.0. May be it works with InstallShield Tuner 6.0.

Report · Mar 16, 2004

I am having the same problem with Acrobat 6 Professional..!!

The MST file create by the Tuner is use less and do not work ..!!

Rico

Report · Mar 25, 2004

Are you packaging the files? If you are, then Tuner is saving the new packaged files to a directory (the name of the directory is something like "InstallShield Tuner for Acrobat") on the root of your system drive . If you are attempting to use the same files in the Reader source directory you pointed to in the initial browse to dialog box for the *.itw file and *.msi file dialogs, then you are NOT packaging the installation correctly. If you don't package the installation properly, then it's like the small dog running after it's tail. It get's you no where very fast.

Rocky.

Report · Mar 26, 2004

Well this problem consists of 2 things...
1: Orca having problems reading the file..
Reason ......Anyone...??

2: The clue with Installashield Tuner and Acrobat Pro is that the Tuner uses the AcroPro.mst wihtout saying so...meaning that when you install the app. you have to first apply the AcroPro.mst and then the transform you created in the Tuner.
Ie. the transform depends on the orginal AcroPro.mst.
I have not found this documented anywhere...but anyone correct me if I am wrong..!

Rico

Report · Mar 26, 2004

Orca? Umm.. not an Adobe tool is it?

I believe that you are correct because the *.mst file that Tuner creates is just the customizations that you have added to the default install.

Sabian

Report · Mar 28, 2004

Rico,

I believe you are right--the extra MST file is required. Adobe support denies this, but I have proven it with all 4 products: Reader, Elements, Standard, and Professional.

I have found the Tuner to be of very limited value.... What I have tried to do is find out what the "tuned" installs do, and do it manually (like setting the registry keys individually for locking out user updates, for example).

BTW, that being said, does anyone know what the registry keys are for locking out user updates for Reader? It is not the same as the other 3 products, and I haven't isolated it yet.....

Report · Mar 28, 2004

Asked too soon: I found the Feature Lockdown Registry section for Reader, under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\FeatureLockdown.

Report · Apr 06, 2004

The MST file that comes with Reader, Pro, Stnd, Elements is not meant to be opened in InstallShield Tuner for Acrobat. According to the documentation linked from the download page, you open the ITW file when you first open Tuner, then select the MSI file, then select Create Transform, and Tuner creates the MST for you.

You'll need both the MST that Tuner creates AND the original MST that comes with the product... You can see this if you select the 'create a setup.exe' option (I can't remember exactly what it's called) in the Package section of Tuner, then do the Packaging, and then look at the setup.ini in the resulting package...the CmdLine= section of setup.ini will have both MSTs listed with a semicolon between them.

Alyssa