Install Adobe Reader DC with SCCM

 

How to install Adobe Acrobat Reader DC using SCCM customized with Acrobat Customization Wizard DC

In this guide I will go through the process of creating an customized Adobe Acrobat Reader DC installer and deployed with SCCM. In this case I will use the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, AcroRdrDC1801120058, and SCCM CB 1806.

First lets download required Adobe binaries:

Download offline Adobe Acrobat Reader DC for Distribution from https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/

Download Acrobat Customization Wizard DC from ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/AcrobatDC/misc/ official documentation for Acrobat Customization wizard is here: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Wizard/WizardDC/index.html

After you finish to download Adobe Acrobat Reader DC for Distribution you will have only a .exe installer, using this installer adobe it will beinstalled with default settings which we don’t want 😊, we want to create our personilzed adobe Reader product.

 

  • Using 7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/download.html )or other toll unzip the AcroRdrDC1801120058_en_US.exe installer. Examining the unzip file you will find some .msi .msp setup.ini, etc. See the print screen

Adobe-reader-installer-unzipedAdobe-reader-installer-initial-seup.iniAdobe-reader-installe

  • Install Acrobat Customization Wizard DC, start the program, open a new project and point to the extracted .msi installer. I will use configuration for a basic unattended corporate installation
  •  Install-Adobe/Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Open-Project
    • Suppress display EULA Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Personalization-Options
    • Make Reader the default PDF viewer
    • Run installation, select silently and Suppress reboot Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Installation-options
    • Desktop, Remove Acrobat Reader DC Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Sortcuts
    • Online Features, Disable product updates Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Online-Services-and-Features
    • Services Integration, Disable all services 
    • Third-party connectors, Disable all
    • You can configure more details but for me those are the most important, save configuration by clicking in bar Transform and Generate Transform. Give the .MST file a name and save it on the project folder Install-Adobe/Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Transform Acrobat-Customization-Wizard---Transform---Save-as
    • Open steup.ini in notepad or other text editor, Add a new line: CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="custom-sccm.ie.mst" /qb!+ who it will include you new .MST file with /qb!+ switch. In my case I have removed the MSI Updater portion, usually in corporate env are proxy with limited acces internet for setup installers, this is how my file looks Adobe-reader-installer-new-setup.ini
    • Personalization Option,
    • Installation options
    • Shortcuts
    • Online Services and Features

You can configure more details but for me those are the most important, save configuration by clicking in bar Transform and Generate Transform. Give the .MST file a name and save it on the project folder

Open steup.ini in notepad or other text editor

 [Startup]

 RequireMSI=3.0

 CmdLine=/sall /rs

 [Product]

 CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="custom-sccm.ie.mst" /qb!+

 PATCH=AcroRdrDCUpd1801120058.msp

 msi=AcroRead.msi

 

  • SCCM, copy the new folder who has all the binaries plus your new .MST file and modified setup.ini in our SCCM apps repositories , a share folder from where SCCM and Distribution point can access to copy the source files
    • General, chose Manually specify the application information SCCM---Create-Application
    • General Information, specify the software name details like name, version, owners, etc SCCM---Create-Application---General SCCM---Create-Application---General-Information
    • Application catalog, if you have an organized catalog add more details about this app SCCM---Create-Application---Catalog
    • Deployment Types, select Add Button SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-Type
    • General, chose Manually specify the deployment type information, Type, Select Script Installer SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--General
      • General Information, SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--General-Information
      • Content location, browse and select the sare folder with Adobe binaries SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--Content-Location
      • Installation program, Setup.exe is all needed no other switches, your custom setup.ini and .MST file will control the entire setup process SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--Installation-Program
      • Detection method, Add Clause, point from wizard to a computer where Adobe Dc is already installed. If you want to do an upgrade you can specify more requirements like minimum version, see the print screen SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--Detection-Method SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--Detection-Method---Version SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--Detection-Method2
      • Installation Behaviour – Install for System 
      • Logon requirement -  Whether or not a user is logged on
      • Installation program visibility – Hidden
      • Maximum allowed time – 15 minutes, in case it fail for trouble shooting you don’t need to wait years 😊
      • Estimated time – 5 SCCM---Create-Application---Deployment-Type--User-experience
      • Content
      • User Experience
      • Requirements – None
      • Dependencies – None
      • Summary, review all the settings
      • Next and finish 😊
    • Now you need to distribute and deploy the product

 What happens after and how you check if everything is fine with this deployment?

  • On SCCM server go to Monitoring à Overview à Deployments à and search for your Adobe deployment, I love when everything is green 😊 SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-Monitoring SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-Status-Monitoring 
  • On computer client

\\computer-name\c$\ Windows\CCM\Logs and look for AppDiscovery.log and AppEnforce.log SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-Status-Computer

  •  Appdiscovery.log, You can see how the app wasn’t discovered so a installation process was triggered SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-appdiscovery
  •  AppEnforce.log, You can see entire installation process and how at the end it was successfully , exit 3010 is e success exit code, a reboot is required, in this example in .MST configuration file reboot wasn’t supress SCCM---Create-Application---Deployments-appenforce

 

If you want this app to be used in a Task Sequence go to app properties and select  Allow this application to be installed from TS Enable-app-for-TS

That was all, happy SCCM-ing :)