Things you’ll need:

• The Adobe Reader 9.4.0 distributable package.
• Some disk space.
• The Adobe Reader Customisation Wizard 9.
• SCCM environment. (Although you can use this method for Group Policy Software Installation too).

Go ahead and grab your Adobe Reader 9.4.0 installation EXE. The first thing we’ll need to do with this is extract the MSI installation from within it. This is a pretty straight forward task that can be achieved with the following command:

<path to>\AdbeRdr940_en_US.exe -nos_o"Reader940" -nos_ne

The -nos_o switch is the folder name to extract the files to. This will form your AIP (Administration Installation Point) and is what we will customise using the Adobe Customisation Wizard. The Adobe Reader 9.4.0 – Setup screen will extract the MSI into your specified folder (as shown below). The screen will disappear once extraction is complete.

Once extracted, you will have your new AIP. It should look similar to my one below.

Now it’s time to customise your AIP. This is done using the Adobe Custmoisation Wizard. Install the application from the link provided above and you’ll find a new icon in Start > All Programs. Run it and select File > Open Package. Browse to the AIP you just created and select AcroRead.msi. You’ll then be presented with various categories down the left and options on the right. This is where the magic happens.

At this point you can go through the categories on the left and customise at your leisure. To get you started, here are a few common items you may wish to customise.

• Run Installation: Silently
• Suppress Reboot
• Suppress display of End User License Agreement (EULA)
• Hide Document Message bar
• Disable all updates
• Disable Help > Digital Editions
• Disable Product Improvement Program
• Disable all Acrobat.Com access, including initiation and participation

Once you have finished your customisations, select Transform > Generate Transform.

Save your transform to the AIP. You can now close the Adobe Customisation Wizard. Be sure to click No when prompted to save the package. We don’t want anything written to the original MSI. That completely goes against the idea of transform files.

Congratulations, you now have a customised Adobe Reader 9.4.0 installation which is ready for deployment.

Depending on your chosen deployment method, you can now create your SCCM package or Group Policy object using the files within your AIP. If you are using GPO deployment, you can use the AcroRead.msi file. Be sure to add the transform file in the Modifications tab so that the MSI file takes in your customisations.

If like me you have the benefit of SCCM in your environment, you’ll want to configure your package with a Program command line such as this:

msiexec.exe /i "AcroRead.msi" TRANSFORMS="<path to transform>" RebootYesNo="No" Reboot="ReallySuppress" /qb

One thing to remember, with 9.4.0 being a major release, the installation will remove previous versions of Reader by default, so you don’t have to worry about running my removal script as previously blogged. Bonus. You’re now ready to deploy. Good luck!

The trouble with Adobe Reader updates is that they aren’t particularly easy to distribute. Sure, you can download the MSI installer from Adobe’s website and use the Adobe Customisation Wizard to create a neat little MST file to transform the install with all your company’s standard settings, but have you ever tried installing the new MSI over a previous version? Not so easy now huh.

For some unknown reason, Adobe engineer their Reader installations in such a way that simply deploying the new MSI isn’t enough. For instance, you can’t simply push out Adobe Reader 9.3.3 and hope that it updates all the previous 9.3.2 installations. You first have to uninstall all previous versions.

Adobe updates usually come in the form of MSP files. These files are designed to patch your existing installation points. It’s important to note that this is only the case for quarterly updates. Security updates cannot be used to patch your administrative installation point.

For this example, I’m going to patch my Adobe Reader 9.3.0 administrative installation point with the MSP for 9.3.3.

Oh but wait, another fly in the ointment. You can’t patch a 9.0 administrative point with 9.3.3 directly. You must follow this order of patching:

9.3.0 > 9.3.2 > 9.3.3

Start by downloading all of your files. You’ll need:

• Your 9.3.0 administrative point
• AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp
• AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp

Slipstreaming Updates into the Administrative Installation Point.

Fire up a command line window, and run the following. This command will integrate your MSP with your installation point.

msiexec.exe /a "path to acroread.msi in admin point" /p "path to AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp" /qb

You’ll notice the installer wizard configuring your computer. Note that this is actually configuring your installation point, not your computer.

Repeat the above with the AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp file. You will now have an installation point with Adobe Reader 9.3.3 ready to roll.

Deploying the Updated Version.

If like me you have Microsoft System Center Configuration 2007 at your disposal, you can make use of my batch file script that I have created to remove all previous versions of Adobe Reader prior to installing the new 9.3.3 version. Simply set the script to run before the installation for Adobe Reader 9.3.3 and you should find the install takes place with no errors.

For the script to work fully, you’ll need to add the MSIZap executable into the same folder as the script. This can be downloaded for free as part of the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (found here…). You only need msizap.exe for the script to work, forget about the other files. MsiZap is a very useful tool. Check out the command line syntax I use and experiment to your hearts content.

If you only have Group Policy at your disposal, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to modify the script to call the install after the uninstalls have taken place. Hope this helps!

REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 6
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A00000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 7
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A70900000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.0
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A80000000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81000000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.4
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81300000003} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.0
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.1
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A91000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A92000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.3
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A93000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 6
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A00000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 7
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A70900000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.0
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A80000000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81000000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.4
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81300000003}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.0
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.1
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A91000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A92000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.3
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A93000000001}