Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

Alright so i know this one has been asked and covered a few times here but i think i've made it past the usual sticking point (pdf print driver) and stuck in a new spot and wanted to see what everyone thought...

 

So the obvious show stopper for doing this one elastic is the print driver/printer and so far it looks like i found a way around that to make it work (can explain more if anyone is curious).

 

The problem i'm running into is using the User Based Licensing so that the login ties to the profile rather than machine name (https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/VirtualizationGuide/citrix.html).   I am setting the below keys to "1" like they need to be and if I go back and create a revision of the layer , its still set to 1 (so its finalizing fine) and if i include the layer in a published image, the key sticks at 1 like it should.   however if i assign elastically, those 2 keys are there but changing to "0" and i'm stumped.  

 

 

The only caveats of Acrobat elastically i've been able to find are based on the print driver (for obvious reasons) so nothing on what might be causing issues w/ this.    it feels really really close to be able to make this work which would be a big deal here since we may be switching back to Adobe and only 2/3 of our employees would have acrobat and the other acrobat reader so this would make it a lot easier to manage

[Rob Zylowski]

Well you know the key is there because when you add a version its there.  But yes you can mount it. If its being used copy it first. 

[Rob Zylowski]

Have you tried compatibility mode? 

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

28 minutes ago, Rob Zylowski1709158051 said:

Have you tried compatibility mode? 

Hey Rob, yup sorry I should have mentioned I did try that was well but same result

[Rob Zylowski]

Andrew have you tried with a new user layer ?  I wonder if you have those settings pulled up into the user layer?

[Rob Zylowski]

If you find you do that would be a good use of user layer repair. 

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

i wish that was the case :)  given our battle wounds over the years i always make sure to try w/ both an existing and new user layer before bugging anyone haha

[Rob Zylowski]

Well you could always use a gpp to set that setting

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

i'd imagine if we did that it would be a one time setting since it SHOULD bake into the user layer then.    worth opening a ticket for ya think?

[Rob Zylowski]

Sure You would get a second opinion

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

no problem i'll get one started.   so crazy question......knowing that once i assign a layer to be elastic it copies a vhd of that app out to the share.  is there any way for me to mount that vhd on a server (non layered desktop obviously) to just browse the contents of that elastic layer? (similarly like i can do w/ a user layer on a server to browse just whats in there? ) . thought maybe i could see how that key is set at that point to isolate things more)

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

alright this one may be on me it looks like with too many irons in the fire........i had 2 different versions of this Acrobat layer and looks like i may have mixed up my elastic assignments (couldnt notice it at first glance because they were the same app) so all on me.  BUT if theres anything to note here is that it looks like it IS possible to do this one elastically (even w/ the pdf print driver) if you're creative with the setup of it.  I worked with and Adobe engineer last week going through the through process and he agree'd that it does not violate any licensing since we'd be using the cloud authentication (which just means it will only work for those signed in anyways).   more or less just knowing how to embed the pdf print driver and ports/printer in the published image in one way (in our case in a printer driver layer)

 

good to know that we can mount and browse a layer though.....i thought i tried it once and it said it mounted but i couldnt find it in the file system anywhere

[Rob Zylowski]

You have to go into disk management and give it a drive to access it. 

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

thanks for the help Rob!  I think i have this all working now and it appears i have the pdf printer working too in the main image and can elastically assign either Reader or Acrobat and works fine as long as you are using the cloud licensing (for compliance reasons ).  

[Rob Zylowski]

Awesome glad you got it working Andrew.  Maybe you could publish how you did it for others.

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

i actually had a user message me on here asking so i created a .gif how i set it up so i can add it here in a min.   anyone else feel free to chime in if i am breaking any rules w/ my method or maybe an improvement to the process 

[Andrew Gresbach1709152664]

 

 

Alright so talking to an adobe tech they said this method is compliant if you use user based cloud licensing since even if you bake the pdf driver/printer into an image that EVERYONE has , even if some users dont have an Acrobat license the printer wont work since it prompts for an adobe login when they try.   Anyways  I created a .gif showing how i did it since that is easier than describing it all.   Essentially what you need to do is

1. copy the Xtras folder from any machine that has Acrobat installed to an accessible location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat <version>\Acrobat\Xtras\) since that is where the PDF printer drivers are.

2. In a layer that you'll include in your published image (not elastic since there are drivers involved), go into Print Management and manually add the Adobe PDF print driver, Adobe Port Monitor and Printer (follow steps in the gif included here) and finalize the layer/include in published image (Important note when you are adding the print driver, it will give you a bunch of identical options, you have to select the 6th one down the list for some reason)

 

Anyone that uses this image will see the Adobe PDF printer in their printer list but if anyone  w/out a license will get an adobe prompt rather than fully working and anyone that IS licensed and logged into Acrobat it will work as designed.   I'm not certain if this method will work for serialized installs or not but worth a shot

 

I'm sure you probably could add the print driver and port into the image/layer and exclude the printer and use some type of post login step (WEM ?) to add that printer based on an AD group or something but havent tried that. 

[Rob Zylowski]

Thanks Andrew!