Adobe Flash Player not reading mms.cfg file

[beng22671927]

Operating system: Windows 7 Enterprise SP1

Internet Explorer 11

Flash Player ActiveX 29.0.0.140 & Flash Player NPAPI 29.0.0.140

It does not appear that Flash Player is reading the mms.cfg file.

I have the mms.cfg file in both System32 & SysWOW64 folders under > Macromed > Flash.

The settings in my MMS.CFG file are as follows:

AutoUpdateDisable = 1

SilentAutoUpdateEnable = 1

However, the flash player settings manager still is set to Notify me to install updates (which creates questions from users).  There does not seem to be a pattern, and some of our impacted PC's only have the file located under SysWOW64.  This issue first surfaced in version 29.0.0.113.  Any thoughts, advice, or things to check would be most helpful!

[_maria_]

Hi beng22671927 ,

How are you deploying Flash Player?

Which installer you using, the MSI or EXE?

How, exactly are you deploying the mms.cfg file?

AutoUpdateDisable = 1

SilentAutoUpdateEnable = 1

This is an invalid setting.

AutoUpdateDisable = 1 completely disabled Flash Player updates including Silent AutoUpdates (Background Updates).  If you want your users to update via Silent AutoUpdat (Background Updates), AutoUpdateDisable must be set to 0

On a 64-bit OS, Flash Player reads the mms.cfg file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash, not at the System32 location.  Deploying it to System32 location is irrelevant.

--

Maria

[beng22671927]

I see.  Flash is being deployed via SCCM from an MSI provided from Adobe, and the config file is applied via a Transform.  I will take note that the first setting invalidates the previous.  So the config file is only needed in SysWOW64?

[_maria_]

and the config file is applied via a Transform

Please do not apply the mms.cfg file to the MSI via transform.  This results in the mms.cfg file being a payload of the MSI installer and when Flash Player is subsequently uninstalled (which it is for every update) the mms.cfg file is also removed, since it was installed as a component of the MSI file.  This may lead to unintended consequences.  Adobe Flash Internal Update Server - mms.cfg replaced and new schedule task is from a customer that was doing the same thing (adding the mms.cfg file as a payload of the MSI via transform).  You can refer to this for more detailed information.  The Administrator Guide will be updated soon with this information.

The reason the Flash Player Settings Manager Updates tab is not reflecting the entries in the mms.cfg file is that the act of simply deploying a file to the client doesn't automatically update the Settings Manager.  However, you can rest assured that the update mechanism queries the mms.cfg file, not the Settings Manager entry to determine what update type the system is configured for.

So the config file is only needed in SysWOW64?

That is correct

[beng22671927]

So manually copying the mms.cfg with only AutoUpdateDisable=1 in SysWOW64 > Macromed > Flash.  The Flash Player Settings Manager Updates tab, like you stated does not automatically update.  This is an issue because then users get notified when there is an update.  The goal here is to suppress that "notify me to install updates" setting.

[beng22671927]

Also the mms.cfg file is saved in UTF-8 Encoding.  - Per the Administration guide.

[_maria_]

The Flash Player Settings Manager Updates tab, like you stated does not automatically update.  This is an issue because then users get notified when there is an update.

The update mechanism queries the mms.cfg file for the update settings.  It does not query the Settings Manager.

Also the mms.cfg file is saved in UTF-8 Encoding.  - Per the Administration guide.

This is fine.  There was a bug introduced in 29.0.0.113 where the mms.cfg file entries were not being parsed correctly if the file was saved in ITF-8 w/BOM, but that was fixed in 29.0.0.140.  If you just had UTF-8 w/out BOM, there was no bug.

[beng22671927]

The question then would be regardless if it won't auto update (based on querying the mms.cfg file)  how do I prevent the popup from appearing for our users.  What setting controls this popup?  And yes I know updating flash automatically would be best, but our IT team managers when users receive the flash updates.

[_maria_]

Can you please provide the following from a system that had the update notification display on:

• FlashInstall32.log saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
• FlashInstall64.log saved at C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
• In the Registry, the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\FlashPlayerUpdate > proc entry, for example:
  Alternatively, you can look in Task Manager for the FlashUtil process when the update dialog window displays and obtain the same information

The 2 log files will be fairly large.  Please upload them to cloud.acrobat.com/send using the instructions at How to share a file using Adobe Document Cloud or use some other file sharing service of your choice tht doesn't require user account login to access.  Post the link to the uploaded files in your reply

Thank you.

[beng22671927]

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

here is the link to both log files.  The proc entry is non-existent on that users PC.  Only default and description.

[_maria_]

Thank you for providing the log files.  The only warnings I'm seeing in the log files are some file permissions issues on some 28.0.0.161 files, indicating Flash Player was in use when the upgrade do 29.0.0.140 (via MSI) was occurring.  In this case, these would have been marked for deletion upon reboot.  These particular files only have 4 installations - 1 each for ActiveX and NPAPI from 28.0.0.161 upgrading to 29.0.0.40.

Is the screenshot in comment 7 (insufficient permissions) and the log files you provided from the same machine?

The screenshot in comment 7 is usually returned when using the offline EXE installer, but the log files you provided only have MSI installations listed.  The auto-update notification workflow would also not display that error message in that UI.

[beng22671927]

Yes they are from the same machine.  I'm rather puzzled by the pop-up myself.  As I haven't seen that popup unless the user downloads it themselves which would be the .exe (outside of IT).  So I am curious what is trying to install, and why it generates that popup, when AutoUpdateDisable = 1 is set. 

[_maria_]

What is the user's permission on the system that is displaying the insufficient permissions error (screenshot in comment #7)?

Did any other Flash Player window pop-up prior to this one, or just this window displayed?  Essentially, what led up to this error message displaying?

This is a long shot, but if the pop-up is still on the machine, please open Task Manager, select to view processes from all users and then look for a process with Flash in the name.

[beng22671927]

Our user(s) are not local administrators, no elevated permissions.  They see the message shortly after logging into the PC in the morning.  I can ask the user to leave the pop-up next time they receive it. 

[_maria_]

Our user(s) are not local administrators, no elevated permissions.

Just standard non-Admin user's, correct?

I can ask the user to leave the pop-up next time they receive it.

Yes, please do so and try to obtain the process name. In addition, right-click on the process name, select Properties and obtain the location.  Actually providing a screenshot of the Properties > General and Properties > Details tabs would be great.

Thank you very much.  In the interim, I'm going to forward this to the installer engineer and get his opinion.  I may request additional information from you.

--

Maria

[_maria_]

In addition, please provide the following information, from the impacted system that you provided the installation logs from:

• mms.cfg file, zipped, saved in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash - please zip/compress the file, don't just upload the raw mms.cfg file
• transform file you are using that adds the mms.cfg file to the MSI
• How exactly do you configure the user's permissions on a system

Upload the compressed mms.cfg file and the transform file to cloud.acrobat.com/send and post the link to the uploaded files in your reply

Thank you.

--

Maria

[beng22671927]

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Zipped file + Transform & CAB file.

The user's accounts are not permitted to install software.  They are a regular account with no administrator permissions.  If they double click / run an executable, it will fail.  Unsure what specific permissions I should search for.

[_maria_]

Thank you for providing the files, and the additional information.  We'll review these today.

Did the pop-up window appear again?

<edit>

The CAB file contains an mms.cfg file.  What do you use this CAB file for?

[_maria_ · Accepted solution]

Hi beng22671927

We investigated further and found the mms.cfg file you're using is not saved in UTF-8 format.  We checked the mms.cfg file you have in the CAB file and in the mms.zip file.  Both are incorrect.

Using Notepad++ and viewing the file encoding, it returns:

when viewing the file in Notepad, and selecting 'save as', it returns:

These are incorrect.  Please edit the file, save it with encoding UTF-8, or ANSI, and deploy it to your system.  The Flash Player Settings Manager > Updates tab should then report the correct settings from the mms.cfg file, and the update workflows should also work correctly.

Essentially, right now, since the file is saved with the incorrect encoding, the settings are being ignored, and it's falling back to the default update workflow, which is Notification Updates (this is the legacy update workflow that is used in the event there is no mms.cfg file, or it's encoded incorrectly).