Managing Shockwave and Flash
Can any of you more experienced folks give me pointers on managing Shockwave and Flash? Right now in our environment we are running 5000 pc's. About 4,000 of these are Windows XP, the rest are Windows 2000. We are in the process of implementing SMS 2003 to manage our software.
There was no software distribution solution in use prior to now. As a result, we have a wide variety of versions of Shockwave and Flash out there. I'd like to get all the machines on the same page.
In a nutshell, I need to uninstall all previous versions, and install the latest. I've registered for and downloaded the newest MSI files from Adobe. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.
There was no software distribution solution in use prior to now. As a result, we have a wide variety of versions of Shockwave and Flash out there. I'd like to get all the machines on the same page.
In a nutshell, I need to uninstall all previous versions, and install the latest. I've registered for and downloaded the newest MSI files from Adobe. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.
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Posted by:
turbokitty
15 years ago
First of all, why are you deploying SMS 2003? You should be putting out SCCM.
Second, I'd wait until you have the SMS clients running on the PC's.. then use that to inventory the software installed and build your uninstall package from that data.
Second, I'd wait until you have the SMS clients running on the PC's.. then use that to inventory the software installed and build your uninstall package from that data.
Posted by:
pjohnso2
15 years ago
They bought SMS 2003 a couple of years ago and never did anything with it. They did not buy software assurance on it. Spending more money to upgrade is out of the question.
The SMS client is running on the machines. Where do I look to find out how to use the inventory data to build an uninstall package with, and what do I use to build the package?
Yes, I'm a total noob. Sorry. [:D]
The SMS client is running on the machines. Where do I look to find out how to use the inventory data to build an uninstall package with, and what do I use to build the package?
Yes, I'm a total noob. Sorry. [:D]
Posted by:
reds4eva
15 years ago
Hell of a job you've got there. There nothing wrong with SMS2003, it will be sufficient for what you require.
You need to read up on inventory and reports/queries for a start.
From version 8 up, Flash versions were all an MSI. Im not sure about older ones. This makes your task so much easier.
You need to read up on inventory and reports/queries for a start.
From version 8 up, Flash versions were all an MSI. Im not sure about older ones. This makes your task so much easier.
Posted by:
aogilmor
15 years ago
the latest (10) is MSI based with upgrade codes in the upgrade table already populated so it oughta upgrade your lower revs.
Useful is the mms.cfg which can contain the following text AutoUpdateDisable=1 and that goes in the WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash folder
Useful if you're trying to manage your desktops and stop random updating by users.
As far as a collection, not sure it's necessary but you could base it off a software inventory with a result of Flash*.ocx if you only want it on machines that already have flash. If I were you I'd just put it on all your desktops since flash is so common now (after appropriate testing of course).
good luck!
Useful is the mms.cfg which can contain the following text AutoUpdateDisable=1 and that goes in the WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash folder
Useful if you're trying to manage your desktops and stop random updating by users.
As far as a collection, not sure it's necessary but you could base it off a software inventory with a result of Flash*.ocx if you only want it on machines that already have flash. If I were you I'd just put it on all your desktops since flash is so common now (after appropriate testing of course).
good luck!
Posted by:
pjohnso2
15 years ago
Is it just flash that has the upgrade table or both flash and shockwave? I know that they made it so Reader 9 would upgrade all versions back to and including 6. (Just did that last week)
We will be applying flash and shockwave to all workstations. I work for a public school, and we use a web-based system called PLATO for instruction. PLATO requires Flash, Shockwave, and Authorware. Authorware is a pain because there is no MSI available.
We will be applying flash and shockwave to all workstations. I work for a public school, and we use a web-based system called PLATO for instruction. PLATO requires Flash, Shockwave, and Authorware. Authorware is a pain because there is no MSI available.
Posted by:
Jamie B
15 years ago
Why not download the MSI for Shockwave, open it in Orca (or your preferred authoring tool) and look at the entries in the Upgrade table? This will show what versions it will upgrade.
Posted by:
pjohnso2
15 years ago
Actually I didn't know you could do that. Thanks for the tip! I did as you suggested and the upgrade table in the Shockwave MSI is empty. The Flash MSI has three entries, one of them says it's for Flash 6.0, the other two don't say. My gut tells me this means that it will upgrade up to and including Flash 6.0, but I'll have to test that.
Posted by:
Jamie B
15 years ago
I suggest you have a quick look at the Windows Installer SDK with regard to the Upgrade table to understand the entries in there. The bits you'll be interested in are the entries for the Upgrade Code, VersionMin and VersionMax columns.
Posted by:
nheim
15 years ago
Hi Pete,
first of all, you have to check, what you have exactly installed on your machines!
There are EXE- and MSI-based installers available from Adobe/Macromedia for quite a time now.
But the MSI-installers are only available on the corporate download site. So the chances you have installed any of those are rather low.
Search the Adobe KB for infos on deinstallation of the EXE-based installations.
And have a look at the entries in the appdeploy package KB.
If you really have older versions with MSI installed, you can easy populate the upgrade code of the those in the actual version.
Just search the Package KB for it.
Regards, Nick
first of all, you have to check, what you have exactly installed on your machines!
There are EXE- and MSI-based installers available from Adobe/Macromedia for quite a time now.
But the MSI-installers are only available on the corporate download site. So the chances you have installed any of those are rather low.
Search the Adobe KB for infos on deinstallation of the EXE-based installations.
And have a look at the entries in the appdeploy package KB.
If you really have older versions with MSI installed, you can easy populate the upgrade code of the those in the actual version.
Just search the Package KB for it.
Regards, Nick
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