Telling the difference between Standard and Pro

Report · Apr 07, 2016

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

Report · Apr 07, 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

Report · Apr 08, 2016

Thanks for the link. It *might* help, but we will see. It looks like a task that we would have to use SCCM to identify, and then somehow find a way to get ServiceNow to translate that data.

If you guys like getting paid properly for your software, I'd highly suggest you find a way to make it easier and more manageable. Every application I've ever come across that has a Standard and a Professional version makes it pretty easy to distinguish - usually in the display name of the application. The trouble that this causes far outweighs any benefit of deployment being "easier".

Thank you

Report · Sep 02, 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.

Report · Jun 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.

Report · Aug 09, 2018

ajones722015 answer brings it to the point.

As IT-Service Manager with responsibility for license management i have been annoyed for a long time, the software manufacturers can not agree on a standard for decades. With Acrobat DC Adobe is now completely undermining the practice. As the previous speaker wrote: Each ITAM / License Management Tool evaluates the configuration / software items to recognize the installations and licenses.

Please train your software packagers, instead of recommending workarounds for your customers, which are accompanied by unnecessary and immense effort!

Report · 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

Report · May 12, 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

Report · May 13, 2016

Correction to my previous statement, it was ProductName property not BrandName that altered the DisplayName in registry. I originally set BrandName and ProductName properties to the same value but after further testing it was the ProductName change alone that worked.

Report · May 31, 2016

Here is more information: Since DC has a common installer for Standard & Pro, entitlement is no longer an install time property but rather a run time property.

This means you may run into future licensing and functionality issues if you modify these properties. You might consider alternatives such as setting the org name to "my org--pro" or something like that.

Report · Oct 04, 2017

Where do you find the "org name" attribute? I'm not seeing it in the Direct Editor?

Report · Sep 08, 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

Report · Oct 26, 2017

How is that relevant at all. Spam.

Report · May 03, 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.

Report · May 03, 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.

Report · May 04, 2018

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

Report · May 04, 2018

And this: Identifying Existing Installs — Enterprise Administration Guide There is no need to look at serial numbers as mentioned in post 12, just look at the LEID.

Report · May 04, 2018

Yes, that link to the Admin Guide was posted earlier in this thread. That will always be the place to go for this information. If another ID method becomes supported, it will be posted there.

Report · Jul 03, 2018

As someone who is using SCCM reports to review our installations for licensing compliance, what field(s) would I need to include to determine the LEID?? I have read the article mentioned above, but it is not obvious to me where the LEID is found.

Report · Oct 05, 2022

Determining what version of Adobe Acrobat is installed on end clients for the purpose of software licensing true up. a mess of a soulution....

Under SCCM, Enable Software inventory and set on the following files with File Collect enabled under Client Settings

name: *.swidtag
path: %PROGRAMDATA%\regid.1986-12.com.adobe\

subfolders: Yes

exclude: Windows folders

Under MSSQL Management Studio

SELECT DISTINCT dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.FilePath,

dbo.v_R_System.Name0,

dbo.v_R_System.User_Name0,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.RevisionID,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.FileSize,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.FileName,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.ModifiedDate,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.LocalFilePath,

dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.CollectionDate

FROM dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile

INNER JOIN dbo.v_R_System ON dbo.v_GS_CollectedFile.ResourceID = dbo.v_R_System.ResourceID

Export the results to a CSV file (Acrobat-installs.csv)

Under Powershell extract the needed information.

Import-Csv Acrobat-installs.csv | ForEach-Object {

$file = $($_.LocalFilePath)

[xml]$swid = Get-Content -Path $file

$product = $swid.software_identification_tag.product_title

$license = $swid.software_identification_tag.serial_number

$type = $swid.software_identification_tag.license_linkage.channel_type

$Key = ($license.Substring(0, [Math]::Min($license.Length, 4)))

switch ($Key) {

'9101' {$Version = "Standard"}

'9707' {$Version = "Pro"}

'9096' {$Version = "Creative Cloud"}

default {$Version = "Unknown licensing"}

}

Write-Host "$($_.Name0), $product, $Version, $type "

}

The resulting data can be exported or parsed as needed.

You can add more details with the following

Import-Csv ~\Desktop\Acrobat-installs.csv | ForEach-Object {

$swidfilepath = $($_.LocalFilePath)

[xml]$swid = Get-Content -Path $swidfilepath

$serial_number = $swid.software_identification_tag.serial_number

$product_title = $swid.software_identification_tag.product_title

$product_version = $swid.software_identification_tag.product_version.name

$unique_id = $swid.software_identification_tag.software_id.unique_id

$activation_status = $swid.software_identification_tag.license_linkage.activation_status

$channel_type = $swid.software_identification_tag.license_linkage.channel_type

$customer_type = $swid.software_identification_tag.license_linkage.customer_type

$4digitKey = ($serial_number.Substring(0, [Math]::Min($serial_number.Length, 4)))

$dataString = "$4digitKey,$product_title,$unique_id,$activation_status,$channel_type,$customer_type"

switch ($dataString) {

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-20-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 ETLA - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-20-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 ETLA - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Standard (trial)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Standard (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Professional (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Professional (unlicensed)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Vol - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,trial,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Standard (trial)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Standard (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,trial,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Professional (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Professional (unlicensed)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2020 Retail - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-17-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 ETLA - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-17-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 ETLA - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Standard (trial)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,TRIAL,TRIAL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Standard (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Standard (trial)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM,unlicensed,TRIAL,TRIAL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Standard (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Professional (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,TRIAL,TRIAL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Professional (unlicensed)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Vol - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,trial,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Standard (trial)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Standard (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,trial,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Professional (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,unlicensed,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Professional (unlicensed)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Professional (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM,unlicensed,TRIAL,TRIAL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Professional (unlicensed)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2017 Retail - Professional' }

'9547,Creative Suite 6 Design Standard,DesignSuiteStandard-CS6-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Creative Suite 6 Design Standard - Vol' }

'9547,Creative Suite 6 Design Standard,DesignSuiteStandard-CS6-Win-GM-en_US,serialized,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Creative Suite 6 Design Standard - Retail' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,SUBSCRIPTION,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for teams - Subscription' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Win-GM,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat DC' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Win-GM,trial,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat DC - (trial)' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Win-GM,unlicensed,TRIAL,TRIAL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat DC - (unlicensed)' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 ETLA - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 ETLA - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 Vol - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 Vol - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 Retail - Standard' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US,activated,RETAIL,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 Retail - Professional' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL,serialized,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 offline - prov.xml std' }

'9707,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL,serialized,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 offline - prov.xml pro' }

'9101,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-MUL,serialized,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat 2015 offline type1 - std' }

'9707,Acrobat XI Pro,V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Retail – Pro' }

'9707,Acrobat XI Pro,V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,serialized,SUBSCRIPTION,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Subscription Pro' }

'9707,Acrobat XI Pro,V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Volume Pro' }

'9101,Acrobat XI Standard,V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,UNKNOWN,UNKNOWN' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Retail Standard' }

'9101,Acrobat XI Standard,V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,VOLUME,VOLUME' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Volume Standard' }

'9101,Acrobat XI Standard,V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL,activated,SUBSCRIPTION,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat XI Subscription Standard' }

'9096,Adobe Acrobat,V7{}CreativeCloudEnt-1.0-Win-GM-MUL,activated,SUBSCRIPTION,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat - CC Full Subscription (Type2)' }

'9096,Acrobat XI Pro,V7{}CreativeCloudEnt-1.0-Win-GM-MUL,activated,SUBSCRIPTION,RETAIL' { $LicenseType = 'Acrobat Pro XI - CC Full Subscription (Type 2)' }

default { $LicenseType = 'unknown' }

}

[pscustomobject]@{

"hostname" = $($_.Name0)

"user_name" = $($_.User_Name0)

"license_type" = $LicenseType

"product_title" = $product_title

"product_version" = $product_version

"4_digit_sn" = $4digitKey

"unique_id" = $unique_id

"activation_status" = $activation_status

"channel_type " = $channel_type

"customer_type" = $customer_type

}

} | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation ~\Desktop\AdobeInfo.csv