Software Deployment

Hey Jane, here's a link i've used before for creating deployments of Adobe Reader and then adding msp patches to: http://www.404techsupport.com/2009/06/26/how-to-apply-patches-msp-to-group-policy-deployed-software-msi/ It's applying it to version 9 of adobe reader but the process is the same and even goes into using the adobe customisation wizard for your deployments, so you can prevent annoying things like the EULA popping up on first use, and locking down how adobe reader uses the browser or not for instance.

Not sure if the patches are cumulative actually, i'm sure someone will chip in, but I've always patched as they were released anyway as they are usually security based patches and it's important to get those rolled out as soon as possible. So safest bet is to merge the msp files into a copy of your deployment one by one in order, so you can make sure they work first before rolling out and you don't ruin what is already working. Also a few of us here have discussed the merits of upgrading vs totally uninstalling and installing a later version of software and it seems safer from my point of view to go the unistall/install route.

Had some email reminders this morning about issues raised with adobe reader x actually and its rather faild attempts for printing large format documents a considerable number of people are experiencing. There is due a Adobe Reader x 10.1 which supoposedly fixes these issues releasing quite soon, and generally these releases are self contained so maybe worth delaying until that's out; you'll only have to deal with a single msi to start with and you can then start adding msps as they are released and keep on top of it from then on.

I found that you have to include all the .MSP files to achieve the right patch level. I created my transform using the Adobe Customization wizard to suppress reboot, EULA, etc. Throw that into the folder containing the MSI, EXE, MSP, etc. Then I modified the file setup.ini to reference the transform so that I only have to run "setup.exe /sAll" from a command line.

What the setup.ini file looks like:

[Startup]
RequireOS=Windows 2000
RequireMSI=3.0
RequireIE=6.0.2600.0
CmdLine=/sall /rs

[Product]
msi=AcroRead.msi
PATCH=AdbeRdrUpd1001_Tier1.msp
PATCH=AdbeRdrUpd1001_Tier2.msp
PATCH=AdbeRdrUpd1001_Tier3.msp
PATCH=AdbeRdrUpd1001_Tier4.msp
CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="AcroRead.mst"

[Windows 2000]
PlatformID=2
MajorVersion=5
ServicePackMajor=4

[MSI Updater]
Path=http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.0/misc/WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe

You can see the patches are all included and my transform is named "AcroRead.mst" Hope this helps you.

10.1 was out yesterday anyway so there's all the hassle resolved for now... just mumping about adobe reader on another forum actually and had forgotten about this post lol

Thanks for the info squeakstar. Time to make a new package. [:'(]

at least there's no .msp messing about [:D]