This discussion has been locked. The information referenced herein may be inaccurate due to age, software updates, or external references.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a similar question you can start a new discussion in this forum.

Acrobat 9 patches

Does anyone know of a way to patch Acrobat 9 to the latest version with a single package?

We have a number of systems that are running outdated versions of Acrobat 9 and so they need a bunch of patches, but Acrobat 9.x patches have to be applied in order and they appear to be rolling out to these machines one day at a time and the machines don't detect that a patch is applicable until the one before it has been applied. For example, a machine that has 9.3.0 installed would install the 9.3.1 patch the first night, and then detect that the 9.3.2 patch is applicable install it the next night, followed by 9.3.3 the next night, and so on. But there are about 13 interim patches between 9.3 and 9.5.2! Is there any way to bundle these all together so that a single package can update all of the outdated systems at once?

  • Andrew M wrote:

    Does anyone know of a way to patch Acrobat 9 to the latest version with a single package?

    We have a number of systems that are running outdated versions of Acrobat 9 and so they need a bunch of patches, but Acrobat 9.x patches have to be applied in order and they appear to be rolling out to these machines one day at a time and the machines don't detect that a patch is applicable until the one before it has been applied. For example, a machine that has 9.3.0 installed would install the 9.3.1 patch the first night, and then detect that the 9.3.2 patch is applicable install it the next night, followed by 9.3.3 the next night, and so on. But there are about 13 interim patches between 9.3 and 9.5.2! Is there any way to bundle these all together so that a single package can update all of the outdated systems at once?

    You could create a custom package with Patch Manager using the Adobe recommendations on this page

    http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/update-patch-acrobat-reader-7.html

    It may take a little tweaking of the Prerequisite Rules, Applicability Rules, and Installed Rules.

    For Adobe Reader 9 in our environment, I use the Adobe Reader 9.5 (Full) and then use the two patches after that one.

    Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any success with creating a custom package.

  • I believe you can use the Adobe Customization Wizard <www.adobe.com/.../detail.jsp to slip in more than one MSP update <www.adobe.com/.../product.jsp in order. This is what I use for my Adobe 10 setup.ini file (produced via the customization wizard):

    RequireMSI=3.0

    CmdLine=/rs /sAll

    msi=AcroRead.msi

    PATCH=${Acrobat.Rdc.Win.m.ReaderUnited-en_US(QPatchName)};AdbeRdrUpd1014.msp

    CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="AcroRead.mst"

    I am pretty sure you can add MSP files with either commas or semicolons. Example:

    PATCH=${Acrobat.Rdc.Win.m.ReaderUnited-en_US(QPatchName)};AdbeRdrUpd1014.msp;AdbeRdrUpd1015.msp;AdbeRdrUpd1016.msp

    Further reading on this: blogs.adobe.com/.../

    Fortunately Adobe 10 does not have the same update issues as previous versions. So far none of the Adobe 10 (reader or pro) updates have required any previous update in order to upgrade to the latest version.

    If you have not used the Adobe Customization Wizard, you should give it a shot. It works great with PM too!

    blog.stealthpuppy.com/.../

    thwack.solarwinds.com/.../172621

    -mark

  • Thanks for the tips, but I am trying to patch Adobe Acrobat, not Reader. There is no 9.5 (Full) patch for Acrobat - the only full installer is 9.0 and then 13 .msp patches are required to get up to 9.5.2

  • hmm.. interesting! I'll take a look at that, thanks

  • Thanks for the suggestions antwesor and Mark.

    I also found a very helpful resource in the Acrobat Enterprise Administration Guide for anyone else who needs to do this in the future.

    antwesors link (Update, patch | Acrobat, Reader 7.x - 9.x | Windows) has a helpful list of the required patches to bring Acrobat 9.0 up to date

    I haven't tested this yet, but I think that this should work. Here's what I've done so far:

    1. Create an install folder with all of the Acrobat install files and patches:
      • 1031.mst
      • 1033.mst
      • 1036.mst
      • Setup.exe
      • Abcpy.ini
      • AcrobatUpd912_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd920_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd930_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd932_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd933_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd940_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd951_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd942_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd945_all_incr.msp
      • AcroProStdUpd910_T1T2_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd946_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd950_all_incr.msp
      • AcrobatUpd952_all_incr.msp
      • AcroStan.msi
      • Data1.cab
      • setup.ini
      • WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe
    2. Use the Adobe Customization Wizard 9  to customize the installation by adding the serial number, accepting the EULA, etc. Save the generated MST with the other files.
    3. Section 7.3 of the administration guide (above) discusses the setup bootstrapper. This tells you how to add  patches to the setup.ini file with a "PATCH=" directive. For Acrobat 9.5.2 this line looks like the following:
      PATCH=AcroProStdUpd910_T1T2_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd912_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd920_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd930_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd932_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd933_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd940_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd942_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd945_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd946_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd950_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd951_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd952_all_incr.msp
    4. In Patch Manager make a copy of the latest Acrobat 9 package "Adobe Acrobat 9.5.2 (Upgrade)"
    5. Open the new package and give it a good name
    6. Skip to the Select Package page and set the Type to "Command Line Installation"
    7. Select the setup.exe bootstrapper in your Acrobat installation folder
    8. Check the box to use the Package Boot Helper
      1. Open the Package Boot Editor
      2. Create an action to "Terminate Processes if files are locked"
      3. Select "Terminate all processes using the files"
      4. Select "Look for files in directory specified by registry"
      5. Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe
      6. Key: Path
      7. Only check 32-bit registry: false
      8. Select "Check all DLL and EXE files"
      9. Save the changes
    9. Check the box to include additional files and select all of the files in your installation folder.
    10. Edit the Success Pending Reboot Codes field to "3010"
    11. Add two applicability rules

      Basic Rule

      Registry Key exists

      Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe

      Use 32 bit registry: false

      Basic Rule

      File version with registry rule

      Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe

      Value: Path

      Use 32 bit registry: true

      Sub-path: Acrobat.dll

      Less Than: 9.5.2.295

    12. Create an Installed rule
      Basic Rule

      File version with registry rule

      Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe

      Value: Path

      Use 32 bit registry: true

      Sub-path: Acrobat.dll

      Equal to: 9.5.2.295

    13. Publish and test!
  • Hi Andrew M.,

    I am currently trying to tackle this task myself.

    Does the procedure you mentioned above do a full re-install, or is the installer smart enough to know the main app is already installed and will only update what pieces are missing?

    On a related/side note:

    Prior to obtaining Patch Manager I did our custom updates using MS's SCUP.  They had an option to "create bundle", which basically allowed us to add any updates we already in the SCUP catalog to a bundle.  This would then allow all the updates in the bundle to be installed as one task. Unfortunately Adobe doesn't have the 9.x.x updates available for SCUP, only the 10+.

    It would be great if that was possible with PM so we don't need to make custom updates as before (my primary reason of moving to PM emoticons_happy.png)

    PrtScr capture.jpg

    Thanks!

    Garrett

  • Hi Andrew,

    I did the process you mentioned above and get the Wizard prompts (Screenshot below), even when I select "Suppress No Interface".  This is causing the update i have pushed to fail.   Do you know if there is any other command that will allow me to do it completely silently?  perhaps a silent "repair"? 

    PrtScr capture.jpgPrtScr capture_2.jpg

    Solarwinds/Others:

    My  organization is relatively new to PM, started using it 4-5 months ago.  This is an update we need to roll out.  The problem with having the individual updates do this for us is that there are 14 updates needed to get to 9.5.3, and they require a total of 13 system restarts which is unacceptable for my business.

    Anyone else had success doing this major updating task?

    Thanks all!

  • In the package editor try adding the switch /sAll to the command line field

  • Also, be sure you add the latest updates and edit the PATCH directive in your setup.ini to include them. Two new security updates have been released since I wrote the instructions.

    PATCH=AcroProStdUpd910_T1T2_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd912_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd920_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd930_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd932_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd933_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd940_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd942_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd945_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd946_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd950_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd951_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd952_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd953_all_incr.msp;AcrobatUpd954_all_incr.msp
  • PatchManager appears to have a feature that might be similar to what you were describing. In the Select Package view of the Package editor, click the Advanced button at the bottom. This brings up a window that includes a section titled "Bundled Packages". I've never used this and haven't looked it up in the administration guide, but I wonder if it behaves like the package bundles you have worked with...

    pastedImage_0.png