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J
juice13610
Participant
April 8, 2016
Question

Telling the difference between Standard and Pro

  • April 8, 2016
  • 4 replies
  • 13689 views

Hello,

    I have to hand it to Adobe - I've never come across and application that sells 2 separate versions, with a cost difference of over $100, that they intentionally made it nearly impossible to distinguish between one another.

We use SCCM, and from what I can tell, Adobe Acrobat DC Pro & Standard both have the same GUID, version number, and display name.  How in the world are we supposed to accurately track our licenses?  We use ServiceNow's Software Asset Management module, integrated with SCCM, to manage software licenses.  It can't tell a difference, and even I as a human, and a 10 year IT Pro, can't either.

Can someone please tell me how I am to accurately manage my Acrobat DC software licenses?

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

C
cliffp83979103
Participant
May 3, 2018

Has Adobe figured out a simpler way to retrieve the information we need to determine if a user has Acrobat DC Professional or Standard installed?  As both products appear as "Adobe Acrobat DC" in Add/Remove Programs, our Asset Management team is having a tough time trying to determine who should be licensed for each version.  I understand that using one installer for both makes "other tasks and deployments easier", however, Adobe should have an easier way to pull this information, other than looking for a serial number in the SWID file.  Please advise.

EnterpriseHelp
Community Manager
EnterpriseHelpCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 3, 2018

I wish I could relay new advice here, but nothing has changed from the posts above. Use the documented method.

I'll bubble this up the food chain again; however, this won't be the first bubble about this issue.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
May 4, 2018

I wonder if this is new information, and whether it helps: Software tagging in Adobe products

A
Anonymous
September 8, 2017

The key refinement between the two is their product applications. The Office Standard has Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel and Word as it were. ... The Office Professional contains Access, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, Word and Outlook with Business Contact Manager While Office Standard contains Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook

Thank you

H
HallaBalla
Participating Frequently
October 26, 2017

How is that relevant at all. Spam.

    M
    MilanD3
    Participant
    May 12, 2016

    Using the Adobe Customization Wizard DC, I was able to modify a property using the Direct Editor feature to alter the DisplayName in registry. When installed, the product appears with a specific name instead of the generic name. Now I can track my installation types.

    Generate a transform file for the installation package and select the Direct Editor feature. Navigate to the Property table and change the BrandName value to the version that matches your installation type.

    e.g.:

    BrandName = Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

    EnterpriseHelp
    Community Manager
    EnterpriseHelpCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 13, 2016

    An engineer says this: "Looking at Acrobat DC msi file, BrandName property gets reset early in the sequence by the custom action SetBrandName, which essentially sets BrandName to the same value as ProductName. Not sure how this customer gets the result described. Did he actually changed ProductName property? Removed\Disabled custom action?"

    Is there anything else you did? It would be good to verify this works without causing issues before a wider audience picks it up as a possibility.

    Ben

    EnterpriseHelp
    Community Manager
    EnterpriseHelpCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 8, 2016

    Please refer to the admin guide: Identifying Existing Installs — Enterprise Administration Guide.

    Apologies for the difficulty, the reason for the identical GUI has to do with the complexities of a single installer (which makes other tasks and deployment easier).

    HTH,

    Ben

    A
    ajones722015
    Participant
    September 2, 2016

    I needed to add my two cents on this conversation.

    To brogers_1 and his engineer: As an Asset Management professional, this method completely undermines the purpose of all asset management tools and counters on the market today. All of them, I repeat ALL OF THEM, function either on the Add/Remove line or the ProductName field. You've basically made it mandatory for all software license management groups to build some type of custom process for Just your Acrobat product. And if that isn't enough, you now tell us that the obvious answer (ProductName) is the worst option.

      H
      HallaBalla
      Participating Frequently
      June 12, 2017

      As a software and packaging engineer working with SCCM and distribution, follow-up of application installs etc, I agree 100% with ajones722015. I suspect I know who ajones is even!

      We struggled with the new regime of Adobe's because whenever someone orders an uninstallation of either application with a subsequent order to install the other version (Pro/Std) of the same application, uninstall will apply to the new version as well because the detection method is the same.

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