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Adobe Reader 9.3.3 Deployment

The populair PDF reader and writer from Adobe are often plagued by critical vulnerabilities. Therefore updating and patching Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat applications is highly necessary.

Here is how to slipstream the Reader 9.3.3 patch into the 9.3 source, suppress the automatic updates, and acrobat.com online services.

First step: get the sources.

Download sources

Adobe Reader 9.3: AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi

Adobe Reader 9.3.2 Patch: AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp

Adobe Reader 9.3.3 Patch: AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp

Adobe Customization Wizard 9: CustWiz90_en_US.exe

Because the upgrade path is 9.3 > 9.3.2 > 9.3.3, we also need the 9.3.2 patch file.

In the second step we need to create a network installation point (administrative installation point). I use C:\temp\reader933\adminpoint, you can choose your own.

Perform an administrative installation

  1. Copy the sources to a directory of your choose, for example:

    C:\temp\reader933\sources

  2. Create a distribution point folder (a folder where the installer can install the uncompressed program files)

    C:\temp\reader933\adminpoint

  3. Open a command prompt and execute this command:

    Msiexec /a <path of AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi>

    With the /a parameter, you’re extracting the MSI to the administrative installation point (folder).

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    When asked, point to the administrative installation point created in step 2 and hit Install.

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    Admin point has been created:

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    The 9.3 source files are extracted, now we will slipstream the 9.3.2 and 9.3.3 patches.

  4. Apply the 9.3.2 patch:

    msiexec /a <path of msi at distribution point> /p <path of Reader 9.3.2.msp>

    for example in my situation:

    msiexec /a “C:\Temp\reader933\adminpoint933\AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi” /p “C:\Temp\adobereader\sources\AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp”

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  5. Then apply the 9.3.3 path:

    msiexec /a “C:\Temp\reader933\adminpoint933\AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi” /p “C:\Temp\adobereader\sources\AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp”

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    Last step is to create a transform file. Here you can disable automatic updates and apply custom settings.

Create a transform file (.mst) using the Adobe Customization Wizard:

Run Adobe’s Customization Wizard and open the extracted MSI (leave other files in place). Then change the settings to suit your needs, use the screenshots as an example (this are our adaptations).

Adobe Customization Wizard - Installation OptionsAdobe Customization Wizard - Shortcuts

Create new key: AVGeneral (in HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0)

DWORD: bCheckForUpdatesAtStartup

Value: 0

Adobe Customization Wizard - Registry Summary

Create new DWORD: OptIn (in HKCU\Software\Adobe\CommonFiles\Usage\Reader 9)

Value: 0

Adobe Customization Wizard - EULA

Adobe Customization Wizard - Online options

Adobe Customization Wizard - Comments and Forms

Before saving the package, create an empty setup.ini file in the root of your admin point. If you don’t create this file the Customization Wizard will throw the error: “Setup.ini not found”. (thanks Terry for letting me know)

Save the package, and you’re done.

Add sites to the Trust Manager

We needed to add some sites to the Trust Manager, this step isn’t necessary in the deployment process. We added this IP ranges to the Trust Manager:

172.33.*

172.75.*

Use this .reg file to deploy via scripting:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\TrustManager]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\TrustManager\cDefaultLaunchURLPerms]

“tHostPerms”=”version:2|172.33.*:2|172.75.*:2″

Import via Customization Wizard should also work, although I didn’t tested the import feature. If somesome has experience with importing these settings, please share and make a comment!

Deployment:

I use this command line to deploy my slipstreamed Adobe Reader via ConfigManager 2007:

msiexec /i “path\AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi” TRANSFORMS=”path\AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi” /qb REBOOT=ReallySuppress /log “path\reader933.txt”

 

Update Sept 2010:

Patch to reader 9.3.4

Here is how to patch the Reader 9.3.3 administrative distribution point with the updated Reader 9.3.4 version.

First get the Adobe Reader 9.3.4 sources file from Adobe’s website. Then apply the 9.3.4 (.msp) patch to the previous created distribution point:

msiexec /a <path of msi at the distribution point> /p <path of downloaded patch>

for example in my situation:

msiexec /a “C:\Temp\reader933\adminpoint933\AdbeRdr930_en_US.msi” /p “C:\Temp\adobereader\sources\AdbeRdrUpd934_all_incr.msp”

It can be confusing, because I named the distribution point “reader933”.

Patch Adobe Reader 9.3.3 to 9.3.4 Update Adobe Reader administrative distribution point Update Adobe Reader administrative distribution point Update Adobe Reader administrative distribution point

Copy the files from distribution point to your desired location and you’re done!

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  1. July 13th, 2010 at 15:04 | #1

    In Step:
    Create new key: AVGeneral
    DWORD: bCheckForUpdatesAtStartup
    Value: 0

    Where do you put this in the registry?

    I only can see “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Re…” when I blow up your screen shot.

    Thank you,
    Terry

  2. Ben De Vriese
    July 13th, 2010 at 15:29 | #2

    That wasn’t very clear indeed.

    You have to create a new key “AVGeneral” in HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0
    Within this newly created registry key, add a new DWORD “bCheckForUpdatesAtStartup” with value 0.

    The screenshot is updated!

  3. July 13th, 2010 at 16:22 | #3

    Thank You! My next gotcha was what to do after making all of the changes in Adobe Customization Wizard 9. One site said to Gernerate Transform and another said save package. Either way, I received the error “Setup.ini not found”.

    Google returned 6 results, none of the applicable. Doh! On a hunch, I created a blank Setup.ini and tried again. Success! Must have been a UAC thing.

    Working on creating package, program, adding to distribution points, and advertising in SCCM 2007 now.

    Thanks for your help,
    Terry

  4. Ben De Vriese
    July 13th, 2010 at 17:34 | #4

    I also had troubles with setup.ini, I copied an old one (from a previous reader version slipsteam) into my admin point to solve it. But an empty one, like you did, apparently do the trick also. Good to know!

    The Adobe Customization Wizard can update/modify the setup.ini file, but can’t create a new one, strange.

    Don’t think it’s UAC, because I’m using Windows XP to sliptream Adobe Reader.

    I will update my post with the Setup.ini stuff.

  5. Hector
    July 14th, 2010 at 20:45 | #5

    Ben,

    I have followed all your steps and then run the command to test before creating the SCCM package, and it tries to install 9.3 and not 9.3.3. I went and ran the MSI itself and same thing. How does the MSI know it has to install 9.3.3 and not 9.3.0? I see multiple folders created during the slipstream, but did not find an msi in there. I am thinking the msi was updated with the commands above, but I guess not. Any suggestions?

  6. Ben De Vriese
    July 15th, 2010 at 08:47 | #6

    It seams you don’t applied the 9.3.2 and 9.3.3 patches (.msp) to the 9.3.0 sources.

    Can you try one more time, using another admin point?

    It’s a three step process:
    1. Extract the 9.3 MSI using the /a parameter (create an admin point)
    2. Apply 9.3.2 MSP (patch) to the admin point using the /p parameter (then you have slipstreamed the 9.3.2 sources into 9.3.0)
    3. Apply 9.3.3 MSP to the admin point, same way as step 2.

    Let me know.

  7. Scott
    August 4th, 2010 at 20:31 | #7

    Thank you so much for documenting this. If I might make a suggestion, the instructions would really be idiot-proof if you made the path names and file names match between steps 1 & 2 and steps 4 & 5. At the beginning you use C:\temp\reader933\…, but then reference C:\temp\adobereader\… in the later steps.

    Plus, when I used the customization wizard, the filename of the transform it made by default was “AdbeRdr930_en_US.mst”, not “AcroRead.mst” as you have listed. Therefore I had to alter the command in the Deployment to fit my situation.

  8. Ben De Vriese
    September 1st, 2010 at 12:25 | #8

    Back from vacation :-)

    Thanks for your comment Scott, I updated the post with your suggestions.

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