Software Deployment

I only found the units setting in HKCU-registry, so I added Active Setup with a regedit command in the trasform (and the .reg file to the program folder where it gets run from).
Maybe the dictionary setting is there as well.

Active Setup is really useful, the only problem is that because of Vista UAC the regedit command may give an annoying security popup at logon, depending on the settings.

This is the .reg file that gets run by Active Setup (iPageUnits is the cm units setting):

[font="courier new"]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[font="courier new"]
[font="courier new"][HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\Originals]
[font="courier new"]"bDisplayedSplash"=dword:00000001
[font="courier new"]"iPageUnits"=dword:00000003
[font="courier new"]
[font="courier new"][HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\AVGeneral]
[font="courier new"]"bCheckForUpdatesAtStartup"=dword:00000000


(The other settings may not be necessary, I also disabled the updating features in the transform.)

Doesn't the Adobe customization utility let you add registry entries?
Seems to me I did that when I created our rollout here. Seems simpler than adding a .reg file and fighting with UAC...

Oh, I kinda forgot about it with v9 (have used it with v8 I think).

Thanks for the reminder, it would indeed be neater if it works.
Gotta check it out tomorrow back at work.

I checked the Adobe Reader 9.1.MSI with Customization Wizard 9 and I couldn't find a setting for the units.

You can add registry entries there, but I don't think it would help because the above mentioned settings are in the HKCU registry - those settings would probably still be put only into the HKCU of the account that is used to install the Reader in the first place! Just like when doing a transfrom otherwise.

the above mentioned settings are in the HKCU registry - those settings would probably still be put only into the HKCU of the account that is used to install the Reader in the first place! Set one of the entries as a key path and the feature containing the component will get repaired/self-healed when a logged-in user loads up the Reader.

Yeah, but self repair only works with advertised shortcuts, right?
Usually people don't start up Adobe Reader from a shortcut, but from a .pdf file.

Yeah, but self repair only works with advertised shortcuts, right?Almost right. Healing involves advertised entry points which can include shortcuts but also file extensions, COM objects and other binaries.

Check out John McFadyen's excellent article http://johnmcfadyen.spaces.live.com

Oh, didn't know that. I'll look into it when I got some spare time. Thanks.

I ended up using the Customization Wizard 9, added the Units-setting in HKCU registry and added an Active Setup that runs the self repair on first logon.

The self repair wasn't triggered automatically by shortcut or .pdf files. I guess that I could have tweaked the entry points with Install Shield Editor but this is simpler and less prone to break anything, I think.