Updating Adobe Reader 11.0.07 to 11.0.09 with MSP does not work as update is recognized as not applicable

I'm not quite understanding why you are *creating* a package to update Adobe Reader? Patch Manager automatically synchronizes the Adobe Reader v11 catalog, and Adobe publishes ready-to-use Reader updates based on their MSP.

In addition, Adobe also publishes a FULL installer which is packaged and made available via the Patch Manager catalog. The 11.0.09 package was published this morning.

As for why an MSP-based package is Not Applicable, that has nothing at all to do with the package being created, that's based on the detection logic build into the MSP file by Adobe. If the MSP returns a "Not Applicable" via the Windows Update Agent, then the target machine cannot be patched with that MSP.

Regarding your April 2013 thread... I do not believe you can PATCH an existing installation with an MSI+MST package, which is likely why those scenarios did not work. MSI+MST can only be used for a FRESH installation.

Perhaps we can chat about what you're trying to achieve with the transform and/or not using the provided ready-to-use packages from either Adobe, or SolarWinds?

The to "why would I do that" changed the last minutes...

Initially I wanted to create the update package as Adobe themself seemed to be quite slow in releasing the MSP update packages to their catalog (I had noticed in the past that sometimes it needs some days for the new updates to appear). But in this case Adobe is innocent: somehow the subscription for the Reader 11 catalog became deselected and (correct behavior) I only got the update packages for Reader 10.

Now I've got a working update package which gets recognized as needed . And I'm more confused then before, as I cannot see major differences between the two packages.

	Self-Created	Adobe
Update/Package ID	83ad57d7-8553-4894-a519-4746ad066e40	2097dcab-dec6-47eb-bd8b-ea73391052c1
Update Type	Software	Software
Download URL	http://armdl.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/11.0.09/misc/AdbeRdrUpd11009.msp	http://armdl.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/11.0.09/misc/AdbeRdrUpd11009.msp
MSP Full Patch Code	ac76ba86-7ad7-0000-2550-7a8c40011009	ac76ba86-7ad7-0000-2550-7a8c40011009
Package Type	Windows Installer Patch (.msp)	Windows Installer Patch (.msp)
KB ID		APSB14-20
Security Bulletin ID		APSB14-20
CVE ID
Severity	Critical	Critical
Classification	Critical Update	Security Updates
Supported Languages	Language Neutral	Language Neutral
Downloaded	Yes	Yes
Package Size	43,07 (MB)	43,07 (MB)
SHA1 Digest	2kpt8b4xzBtIPznibiFAoJBNyAQ=	2kpt8b4xzBtIPznibiFAoJBNyAQ=
Direct Download	Yes	Yes
Uses Package Boot	No	No
Metadata Only	No	No
Is Published	Yes	Yes

Both packages use the same MSP file. If the MSP is responsible for creating the needed rules I do not understand why one of theese packages wants to get deployed to thousands of computers and the other one not.

Is there any possibility to take a look at the included rules of a MSP?

Regarding the SHA1 Digest in the update summary: digest of what? While experimenting yesterday I created a few packages, some by scratch (the above one) some by duplicating an existing package and mofifying it. All packages use the same content (AdbeRdrUpd11009.msp) which shows up in the content tab with the SHA1 Digest 2kpt8b4xzBtIPznibiFAoJBNyAQ= but not all packages show this digest in the summary.

Regarding the provided full installer: this package gets installed even if there was no existing installation before. As I just want to update existing installations and it cannot be installed on all clients I don't use this package.

Regarding my "MST/MSI" last year problem: I'm quite happy with the solution/workaround as I've got a quite standarized installation base today. Hopefully the next big update will be the problem of someone else as our company is just in the outsourcing process for workplace management.

Is there any possibility to take a look at the included rules of a MSP?

If you can, it would be discussed in the MSDN Library at Patching (Windows)

Regarding the SHA1 Digest in the update summary: digest of what?

That's the SHA1 digest of the CAB file attached to the package as published to WSUS.

Regarding the provided full installer: this package gets installed even if there was no existing installation before. As I just want to update existing installations and it cannot be installed on all clients I don't use this package.

Excellent. That would be the intended scenario. As such, though, we're merely the "messenger" of the Adobe-created MSP and Adobe-created catalog/package, so any issues with how the MSP behaves are really questions for Adobe.

Found one difference after scolling down the summary: the original package shows a dependency.

What's meant by this and where can it be configured/seen in the package details?

If you look at all of the other Reader patch packages, you'll see the same dependencies, all the way back to 11.0.01.

These are architecture detectoids defined by Microsoft in the Software Deployment Packaging schema, and stored in the WSUS database.

You can find a list of well-known detectoids in the MSDN Library at Well-Known Detectoid IDs

These specific detectoids ensure that the target system's architecture is either x86 or x64, i.e. NOT Itanium.

Detectoids can be used in place of certain standard rules. Think of them as "rules" build into the WSUS database.

Unfortunately, however, the Patch Manager Package Wizard does not support the use of detectoids, which is why these dependencies do not appear when editing the package.