Software Deployment

Does it have a dialog box to input the license number ?
Go into the properties of the dialog to see what property it is using.

Unfortunately the dialog box is presented after the install is finished and the software is run for the first time.

ORIGINAL: SpriteAM

Unfortunately the dialog box is presented after the install is finished and the software is run for the first time.
Run a lightweight snapshoot tool (I use Ziff-Davis' In Control - Google for 'InCtrl5.ZIP) after the install but before the dialog. Complete the dialog then do the 'After' snapshot. It can only realistically be recording stuff in a file or the registry. Your problem may arise if things like the machine's computername or processor serial number get hashed-in to the license but at least you'll know where to start.

I also have the same issue and couple more. I would like to turn off Updater and the Registration options in RoboHelp 7. With some other Adobe products (Captivate) I can remove adobe_updater.dll and adobe_registration.dll in order to disable these, but if I do that, RoboHelp will not work. Any suggestions for this would be a great help. thanks!

Hi,

Just try them , hope atleast one of them can help you out :)

Add the following three registry keys to prevent standard users from being bothered with updates they cannot install:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\<appname>\Updater]
"bShowInstCompDialog"=dword:00000000
"bShowNotifDialog"=dword:00000000
"iUpdateFrequency"=dword:00000000
OR
Disable Online Registration:
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\<app ane hive>\FeatureLockdown\bRegisterProduct, REG_DWORD, 0 disable, 1 enable)
OR
To Disable the AutoUpdate functions you can delete following files:
Adobe_Updater.exe
UpdaterInstallMgr.exe

Hi,

If you are using Installshield, try creating a Response transform and check wht property gets created once you pass the Serial key in.
OR
Usually Serail key gets stored in HKLM\software\Adobe\<app name hive>\Registration , chk wht property the vendor has used to resolve it.
Other way is install the application and check the log and search for the Serial key in it.

thank you! I'll try them and let you know whether it worked. thanks again!

Thank you very much for your help. I was able to get it working by doing the following:

To Disable the AutoUpdate functions I deleted following files:

del "%systemdrive%\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5\AdobeUpdaterInstallMgr.exe"
del "%systemdrive%\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5\AdobeUpdater.exe"

To disable Registration, I deleted following file:
del "%systemdrive%\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 7\RoboHELP\adobe_registration.dll"
del "%systemdrive%\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 7\RoboHTML\adobe_registration.dll"

Both Registration and Update options show as if they are enabled, but they don't go anywhere. Only issue is that they are not grayed out.

I still have the issue with the serial number also. I did not find an entry with the following:
HKLM\software\Adobe\<app name hive>\Registration

thanks again!

FWIW, I *generally* rename files, rather than delete them.

I also had problems with the serial number. I found the two files that contain the serial number and copied these to my distribution. I tested on different workstations and with different userids so no user/hardware specific information is saved in the files. I did the following to include the serial number in my package:

- Installed Robohelp on test workstation
- Opened and entered serial number. Copied following files and added to my installation directory:
%programfiles%\common files\adobe\adobe pcd\pcd.db
%programfiles%\common files\adobe\adobe pcd\cache\cache.db
- To add the serial number in distribution package, after calling msi to install added the following 2 lines:
copy pcd.db "%programfiles%\common files\adobe\adobe pcd\" /y
copy cache.db "%programfiles%\common files\adobe\adobe pcd\cache\" /y

Yes, thank you! I found out that when I ran this in a PC other than mine, I had access issues deleting the files. so I did the rename too..

Although these 2 files do not have user/workstation specific information, they do have all the adobe product specific information. I'm testing different adobe product upgrades (Fireworks CS4, Captivate 3 etc.) at one time and everything related to these products get written in to these same 2 files. So, if I copy this over to other users, I am thinking that unnecessary information will get copied.
Also, if the user is having any other adobe products, serial number information for those will be stored in there, and the new files will overwrite those information.
Any suggestions? thanks!

Any suggestions? Someone needs to take Adobe's developers on a tour around their corporate client base and see the abject mayhem caused by their hare-brained license-recording system. Seriously, any of you guys dealing with this nonsense need to encourage your IT heads to bombard these imbeciles until they work out that, actually, hardly any of their customers runs their installer on individual workstations.

When they've finished with Adobe, you can turn their attentions to Microsoft and their wretched "patches which aren't really patches" nonsense which is, to all intents and purposes, next to impossible to deploy with Group Policy.

Can you tell than I'm upset? LOL

:)

Hi,

To suppress all dialogue boxes for serial key and registration, we create and use the “application.xml.override” file. This is an xml file which will be used during installation to suppress the following options:

a. Serial Key
b. Registration
c. ULA
d. Updates

This file will actually contain the serial key of the application and will contain the logic, which will suppress Registration, ULA and Automatic Updates.
Its format is like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Payload>
<Data key="Serial" protected="0">1234XXXXXXXXXXXXXX</Data>
<Data key="Registration">Suppress</Data>
<Data key="EULA">Suppress</Data>
<Data key="Updates">Suppress</Data>
</Payload>
</Configuration>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the fourth statement of the above code we can give the actual serial key of the application in place of ‘123XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX’

Now there’s a specific location where this application.xml.override file should be kept during installation. That location can be found from the file setup.xml which is located at Payloads folder under the main source folder.

e.g. This setup.xml file contains a statement: <Driver folder="AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume"/>, which gives the location of the Driver Folder. Like in the above case Driver Folder is “AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume”. We just have to keep this application.xml.override file under that driver folder in our wrapper MSI.

You can use these commands in the newer installs of Adobe applications. RoboHelp 7 still uses the older install method. Therefore, no payloads folder or no XML files.