Software Deployment

Hello Probert,

This application is still on my to-do list, and I am not sure if the following info is the reason for your problem, but I think your problem is the same as in the Stand-alone license version of AutoCAD LT 2006, another application that gave me headaches.

Both Adobe and Autodesk use SafeCast anti-piracy software. SafeCast writes information to track 0 of your harddisk. You cannot remove this by formatting your machine, only a Low Level Format will do. As soon as you start the application, a license file is created in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe Systems\Product licenses. This can be a trial license, if you choose not not activate your product yet, or it can be a "normal" license file, if you did activate your license already.
Now, if you did not save C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe Systems\Product licenses, but simply reinstall your PC and try your silent installation again, you will not be able to use the same license code again on his PC, because of the information in track 0. But it should be possible to execute your silent installation on another PC. It is also possible to transfer your license to another PC. You can find how to do this on http://www.adobe.com/activation/faq.html.

Perhaps a corporate license is a much better idea, if the organisation you work for is willing to buy this. Unfortunately, I will have to work with these stand-alone licenses that need activation....
[:@]

Well, I hope this info helped you a bit. If you encounter some more problems or if you find solutions, I will be very happy to hear them. If I'll find some new information, I'll post it here.

CS

Try removing the hypens from your serial number in the MST file.

I did try (was the first thing I tried actually:)) unfortunately that didn't work.

I had this issue when trying to use 'retail' media . Talk to SHI (or whoever your vendor is) and ask them for Volume (aka TLP) media. Note that TLP media requires a 'volume' key.

The retail copies (that come in a box w/ the manual and all) aren't meant for distribution (they have activation and the like...).

Side note: has anyone been able to successfully package the 'Total Training Video' for any CS2 product? Issue is that once its installed, it still wants the CD in order to be run (a quick check of the folder c:\program files\Total Training\ shows the installer only copies about 20mb of data, while the CD has about 500mb of content). Is there any way to copy the entire cd to HD and 'trick' the app into using the hd content instead? (Besides setting up a virtual CD drive w/ daemon tools or the like).

andypern is wright. I had the same issue with adobe photoshop cs2. I have ordered a Volume License media and thats all. It costs us 35 euro´s so that is not a big deal.

Does anybody know if there is a Volume License media for Adobe creative suite premium, or do i have to order every app seperatly?

SHI shipped us the TLP version of the CS2 box set as well, haven't tried packaging it (as no-one has requested the full suite here yet). I'm assuming it would work the same as the separate products though...

Side note: I can't get the help center to pickup Adobe Photoshop CS2 help files (I install the help-center msi as part of my photoshop installer), for Illustrator it works fine. Did you have to do anything special to get it to work right?

andypern, to get Adobe Help Center to recognise the photoshop files, simply install Photoshop manually on a machine (or go to a machine where it does find the help files), then copy the file "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Center\AdobeHelpData\Packages\Photoshop_9.0_en-us.zip" to the same folder on the machine that doesn't find the photoshop help.

Now you access any help file in Adobe Help Center (either go to an Adobe product and request help, or run the program directly). It will need to rebuild it's caches and indexes (which may take a few minutes) but after that, it should be OK.

BTW, you will probably need to run it under an admin account first (unless you give your users write access to c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Center\AdobeHelpData

Try for the corporate media. If you get it, you'll need to copy the files onto a share. Look for an ini file called something like abcy.ini or something. Put your serial number in there not an MST. What exactly is required should be on Adobe's site. Their documentation is ok for illustrator, photoshop...