Wizard Deployment Example

The Adobe Customization Wizard for Acrobat provides a graphical user interface that allows you to customize the product’s Windows installer. It provides administrators with the ability to tune the installer when business needs can benefit from customized document security and digital signature workflows. The wizard saves deployment time and reduces complexity by eliminating scripts and manual registry edits. Pre-configured applications enable standardizing the user experience by providing consistent security settings across the enterprise. Tuned installer changes run whether the installation is pulled from a server or pushed silently to users’ desktops.

For example, in addition to migrating pre-configured registries and files from an existing application, you can use the Wizard to customize the product installer in the following ways:

• Customize digital signatures settings for signing and validation.
• Customize document security settings.
• Edit the application’s registry and installer tables.
• Configure a connection to an Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management Server.
• Lock settings so they cannot be altered by users.

Note

The Wizard is capable of many other operations relevant to non-security application features. For details, refer to the Wizard’s documentation.

A note about migration and upgrading

Registry settings are not automatically migrated when installing a new application or updating via an MSI file. You should always either:

• Use the Wizard to create an MST file and save the MST for future use, or
• Export and save your registry settings you want to appear in the new installation.

General Method

The wizard’s user interface (GUI) only provides basic options for security configuration. Using the wizard’s GUI to set preferences overwrites any registry settings that you might drag and drop from your template application via the Wizard’s Registry feature. For these reasons, users with extensive experience modifying the registry and who are familiar with Acrobat’s advanced features may want to utilize a more manual process. The easiest way to leverage all of Acrobat’s features is to use the:

1. UI: Install the product and configure needed options in the Preferences user interface.
2. Registry: Use the Preference Reference to fine tune settings.
3. Wizard: Load the MSI in the Wizard and leverage an existing registry from an installed product, complete the installer configuration, and save the MST.

Configure the Product UI

1. Install the new application.
2. Configure the application via its user interface which sets many preferences.
3. Exit the application.

Tweak the Registry

1. Use the Preference Reference to set additional which are not exposed through the UI.
2. Lock down features so that settings can not be changed by end users.

Configure the New Installer

1. Open the Wizard.

2. Choose File > Open Package.

3. Browse to (product name).msi file you would like to customize.

4. Choose Open.

5. Leverage the registry settings of an existing install or the install you just configured: Use the wizard’s Registry feature to drag and drop the configured registry to the installer.

6. Leverage the files and folder settings of an existing install or the install you just configured: Use the wizard’s Files and Folders feature to drag and drop items to the installer. In particular, copy acrodata files:

   • addressbook.acrodata: Populates the Trusted Identity Manager with certificate data. This file can be used to distribute a trust anchor for signature validation.
   • directories.acrodata: Populates the directory server list in the Security Settings Console. This file can be used to configure connections to an LDAP server used as a certificate repository.
   • appearances.acrodata: Stores signature appearances. Unless there is a shared company appearance, do not use this file.
   • security-policy.acrodata: Populates the security policy list in the Security Policy Manager. This file can be used to distribute common document security policies.

Note

Paths vary by application, version, and user. For example, on Windows XP, drag and drop all acrodata files from C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\(version)\Security to CommonAppDataFolder\Adobe\(product name)\(version)\Replicate\Security. Only acrodata files can be placed in CommonAppDataFolder. These files must be NEWER than the same files on the destination computer or they will not be copied.

7. Copy other needed files to a custom or existing directory. For example, expand the Destination Computer directory ProgramFileFolder\Adobe\Acrobat (version)\Acrobat\ and create a new folder called Security.
8. Use the wizard to configure settings other than those under Security and Digital Signatures.
9. Export an MST file and deploy both the new MSI and MST together.

Preserving end user settings

The Wizard is used to install machine data for all users such as corporate address books (trusted identities) and signature appearances. In the case of the addressbook (which stores signature data) if you deploy a common addressbook, all end users get the enterprise addressbook. If you do not provide an addressbook.acrodata file, the application looks for any existing addressbooks on the end user’s machine. The application looks for files in this order:

• \AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\11.0\addressbook.acrodata
• \AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\addressbook.acrodata
• \AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0\addressbook.acrodata
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 11.0\Acrobat\Replicate

Any found file is copied to the appropriate directory for the current install so that end user data is preserved.

• SignatureLogo.pdf: To create a watermark or logo on each employee signature, create the logo and manually copy the file to the Documents and Settings Directory under their username.
• PKCS#11 drivers: If you use smart cards, you can distribute drivers that end users can import via the Security Settings Console.
• Custom security handlers: If you have developed a custom handler for signing or document security, install it in the application’s plugin directory.