WinXP - Recurring Error: 16

[jlester_ak]

Hey All,

We've been deploying Adobe products utilizing group policy software installations; in the past, we've only had Flash and Reader deployed in this way. Recently our division got volume licensing for Acrobat, so we've been starting to roll that out. While the installation more-or-less works with Vista/7, we've hit a big snag on our XP machines.

Acorbat appears to install just fine via GPO but, on about half of the XP boxes, Acrobat closes right after you try to open a PDF and displays an error 16. It seems like Acrobat will work for a user at first but, as soon as the user logs in to the comp a second time, error 16 comes back with a vengance. There are a couple other posts on here depicting this error, but none of their solutions work in our enviroment. Some of the things we've tried:

• Verifying permissions - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/827/cpsid_82744.html
  • Tried changing permissions on just those individual folders and their entire containers - neither worked
  • Whenever I uncheck the 'read-only' box and hit apply, it gives me an 'access denied' error on a few files. Then, if I open the properties window again, the 'read-only' box is re-checked, though it's a full box, not a checkmark.
• Reinstall
  • Tried uninstalling Acrobat completely and reinstalling via...
    • GPO
    • Un-customized .msi (we typically apply an MST to the GPO)
    • The original disc
  • Tried uninstalling ALL Adobe products, then installing JUST Acrobat in the three ways described above.
    • Sidenote - if you've never tried to completely uninstall an adobe product, you're in for a treat - there are little bits of Adobe lying ALL OVER the system drive. Does anyone know of a solid method that will actually work to remove Adobe's residuals? Even their Flash uninstaller leaves Flashy crap behind.
  • In all of these instances Acrobat will work again, but only for the first time a user logs in. After they log out of that comptuer and back in, the configuration error pops right back up.

I'm at my wit's end on this and would seriously appreciate any ideas. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Does anybody have some more options we can try out?

Thank you all so much for reading,

Jake

[Guest]

I had the same error when installing this product. Ran ProcMon to check what was being blocked by policy and modified the GPO to allow access.

Used %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\ and granted Modify rights to my Domain Users. No problem after running a gpupdate /force from the command line.

[Yakov_Fain]

Had this error on the Windows XP machine, where i didn't have admin rights. After the rights were granted, the error disappeared.

Yakov Fain

[Guest]

The exact same error was occuring for one of our users in Windows 7 x64, even though he was a local administrator.  I added modify rights to that folder and its contents to the local users group and the problem appears to have been immediately resolved.  My guess is that Acrobat's installer didn't correctly set permissions on this.  Please fix your product Adobe.

[kashifMohd]

raynebc2,

What permissions do you have for Administrator and everyone on:

%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\

%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache

%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\cache.db

Goto the Security tab in properties dialog box to view the permissions.

Also, have you set any policy to restrict permissions on "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files" folder??

[Guest]

The problem had come back after it had gone away, I don't know if it's because of Acrobat 10's designed behavior (ie. only trying to alter certain files every so often).  The user is a local administrator and has full control access to those two directories and that file.  We are not using any policies to restrict access to that folder, although I'm certain this is a problem where Acrobat may not have been designed to handle User Account Control, where all write access to anything within the "program files" directories is restricted by default unless the user launched the program with elevated permissions.  Please confirm whether Acrobat 10 has such compatibility issues.

I launched Acrobat elevated as administrator and after several seconds, it brought up the registration prompt.  The user registered, and at least for now, the problem appears to have gone away.  If the problem stays away, then it appears to be a problem where Acrobat is creating/editing files in areas protected by User Account Control, and it should be properly prompting the user to elevate the program's access as per Microsoft's intentions.  UAC is on by default in Windows Vista and Windows 7, so Adobe should strive to develop with that in mind.

[kashifMohd]

Don't look at the permissions for Administrator, what are the permissions for 'Everyone' user group. I have a machine where Acrobat has been deployed via GPO. I can see there that "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\" has only Read access for Everyone but "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache" has Read\Write access for Everyone which seems fine. So it seems that Adobe is setting the permissions correctly.

[Guest]

None of those files or folders have "Everyone" permission specified anywhere.  I did not remove it, Adobe's installer must have not set those permissions.  And unless you're trying to replicate the issue on a Windows Vista/7 computer, "Everyone" entity's permissions will not matter if this is a compatibility issue with User Account Control.  As I have mentioned, UAC will de-elevate a user's permission to anything within the Program Files directory, and it would be the application's responsibility to either use Windows' API to prompt the user to elevate to administrator level of access or to store files that need to be opened with modify access outside of the program files directory (and any other directory affected by UAC).  Please confer with Acrobat's development staff on whether this is a UAC related issue.

[kashifMohd]

I've a Win 7 computer with UAC On and Acrobat installed via GPO and "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache" has correct permissions i.e. Everyone has write access so Adobe installer is setting the permissions correct.

In your previous post you said that "I added modify rights to that folder and its contents to the local users group and the problem appears to have been immediately resolved". Why did the problem came back? Can you check if the permissions that you had set still exist or not, that might provide pointers to whats the problem is...

[Guest]

On a standard installation (not a deployment), those permissions were not set on the user's computer.  I did not remove them so it is either standard Windows behavior that locked down the permissions to that folder or Acrobat's installer did not set them at all.  If they are required, Acrobat's installer will probably need to be adjusted.  This morning, the problem had relapsed on the user's computer.  Manually launching Acrobat elevated as administrator seems again to temporarily resolve the issue, I'm guessing this fixes it until the user logs off or the computer reboots.  However, I have manually altered the permissions of the Adobe PCD\cache folder so that Everyone has modify permission.  We'll see if that permission holds.

The fact that the user has administrator rights, but has to run Acrobat as administrator to make the problem go away temporarily proves it is a permissions issue centered around User Account Control.  I have seen similar behavior with other recent releases of Adobe software where the program won't function correctly unless access is manually elevated during program launch, so I am confident this is something the developers should look into.

[kashifMohd]

<<"However, I have manually altered the permissions of the Adobe PCD\cache folder so that Everyone has modify permission.  We'll see if that permission holds.">>

Do let us know if they hold after next reboot and after "gpupdate /force". If they do not hold then trust me there is something specific to your environment.......may be some security policy that restricts permission to that folder.

[Guest]

Could you confirm the necessary permissions for the contents of the "Adobe PCD" folder?  Are the program's only explicit requirements that the "Everyone" entity have modify permissions?

[jlester_ak]

kashifMohd wrote:

Do let us know if they hold after next reboot and after "gpupdate /force". If they do not hold then trust me there is something specific to your environment.......may be some security policy that restricts permission to that folder.

That was exactly my problem... I felt pretty dumb after spending days on this, then realizing one of our GPOs was specifying permissions for the All Users App Data and Common Files folders. I just added the Adobe folders to that GPO and gave all users Modify rights on the PCD and SLStore folders. After a gpupdate and a restart, we haven't had any problems since.