Software tagging is the process of maintaining a set of tag files (.swtag) on a client machine to determine the install and license state of various software products. This tagging process can be used to assist in Software Asset Management (SAM) tasks and there is an ISO industry standard for this which is denoted by ISO/IEC 19770. For asset management purposes an administrator can run any SAM tool that will scan the .swtag files on the client machine and parse them for analysis and reporting purposes.

Software entitlement tags (.swtag) are files that provide authoritative identifying information about software licensing rights. These entitlement tags taken together with 19770-2 software identification tags, which accurately identify installed software programs, facilitate conducting software audits, reconciliation, and license compliance management with ease.

Prior to ISO/IEC 19770-2 electronic discovery of software licensing rights was non-existent. Entitlements data was commonly found in printed documents like purchase orders, invoices, and purchase receipts which were hard to organize and track. Standardization of entitlement data tags provides uniform, discoverable data for the license compliance processes of Software Asset Management (SAM), making it possible to optimize software license compliance.

Software Tagging in Existing Adobe Products A9 and CS4

Acrobat 9 was not only the first Adobe product but the first ever product to utilize ISO/IEC 19770-2 software identification tags. Adobe Creative Suite 4, which was shipped in 2H2008, was next to follow. Since the active development cycles for these products closed prior to the current ISO/IEC proposed Final Draft International Standard v1 19770-2 dated 2009-05-13, this implementation is based on an earlier proposed Final Committee Draft version released on 2008-08-04.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 products dynamically generate tag file during install time and product launch time. They also support a self‐healing capability.  The self-healing capability restores tag files to their correct state at product launch time in the event of a missing or corrupted tag file.  Licensing state changes or product configuration changes can also result in a change to the tag files.

Software Tagging in Future Adobe Software

While ISO Tagging in Adobe Acrobat 9 and Adobe Creative Suite 4 was based on the Final Committee Draft version released on 2008-08-04, future Adobe software will incorporate the changes proposed by ISO/IEC in the Final Draft International Standard v1 19770-2 dated 2009-05-13. As with Adobe Acrobat 9 and Adobe Creative Suite 4, future Adobe products will dynamically generate tag files during install time and product launch time and also support self-healing capability. To incorporate the changes of the new draft there are few changes in different areas of tagging process.

1.       Tag File Location in A9/CS4 and future Adobe software

2.       Tag File Naming convention in A9/CS4 and future Adobe software

3.       Important Tags and values

All mandatory identity elements are supported along with some optional information. Some tags have been deleted, added and renamed. Important tags with their possible values are shown in tag file examples.

a.       Example of Tag File in A9

  View image

b.       Example of Tag File in CS4

Since Adobe supports what is known as "Flexible Licensing" an application can be installed and serialized as a standalone app or as a part of a Suite. There are some differences in the tag files in both the cases.

                                                   i.      Software tag files for Standalone Application for e.g. Photoshop licensed by itself looks like:

View image

                                                    ii.      Software tag file for an Application licensed as a part of Suite  for e.g. Photoshop licensed as a part of Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium looks like:

View image 

4.       Process/Stages of Tag file Updation:

a.        Product install - On product install a tag file gets created for

                                                   i.      Non-Serialized Install: <entitlement_required> set as "false".

                                                  ii.      Serialized Install: <entitlement_required> set as "true".

b.       Product launch - On product launch existing tag file is updated if present otherwise a new one is created. Tag file is updated based on licensing state changes thusly:

http://www.adobe.com/go/creativesuite_devcenter

There are 4 documents and three planning sheets. The CS4 Toolkit guide was completely redone. The deployment guide takes you one level deeper with more background around planning for deployments and some best practices. The planning sheets go with the deployment guide.

Happy Reading!

Chris Hohman
chohman@adobe.com

The handling of license expiry in Adobe CS4 has been one of the highest customer calls generator for Adobe, with anxious customers calling in to find the way out of this dead-end.

This 'License Expiry' screen is all too familiar to many of us

In CS4, "License Expired. Licensing for this product has expired" was displayed to the user if either the software build had expired or if the serial number used to license the application had exhausted its validity and had expired. This was a hard-stop and it prevented the user from running the application again. In particular, the user of expiring serial numbers had no direct way to resolve the license expired state and renew his license with another serial number. This situation becomes more complicated when other Adobe applications / suites are installed and licensed on the machine. The user was blocked on this and ended up ringing customer support.

There has been a workaround to the License Expiry issue, wherein the user had to manually roll back the system clock by a few days to re-launch the application, and then deactivate the license with the "Help-> Deactivate" option with erase serial number preference set. This would remove the expired license and the corresponding serial number from the user system. So when the user resets the system date back, on subsequent application launch the user is presented the user interface to enter a new serial number.

In CS4 handling of license expiry, the user wasn't reminded that the product's license is about to be expired and also, the user was not given an opportunity to renew his license with a new serial number. The user was bound to use the workaround, to be able to run the application.

In our next version, the design of the license expiry workflow has been altered to effectively tackle all the issues in CS4 handling of license expiry.

In our next version, when the product is launched the check for license expiry is performed. If the serial number associated with the license has expired, the user would not be displayed a hard-stop alert as was done in CS4. Instead, the module responsible for licensing of the product would bring up a user interface. This license expiry user interface screen would

• Inform the user that the license in use has expired with an error message.
• Additionally, it would provide an option to the user to enter a new serial number to renew his expired license.

This is like a 'bonus launch' of the product as the product is giving a bonus opportunity to the user to renew his expired license by entering a new serial number. This eliminates the need for previously used workarounds, to bring up the user interface (serialization screen) for entering an alternative serial number in case of license expiry.

If the user does not use the 'bonus launch' of the product to renew his license, then on every subsequent launch of the product, the license expiry user interface would be displayed, prompting the user to enter a new serial number.

With this design, the user would no longer be blocked on license expiry. Just a new serial number is to be procured and provided in the user interface, to continue to run the application seamlessly.

Improving the user experience for all adobe products is one of the principal design consideration for the next version of our licensing solution and, through this approach, we aim to do just that and thereby also reduce the volume of technical support calls.

Now to get those filters fixed and start reading all the comments that were blocked...

Adobe's updater technology through CS4 is known as the Adobe Update Manager (AUM.) AUM has a long history of various problems. Our user community has been vocal about the number and types of problems experienced through AUM. In the next instance of the Creative Suite, we intend to provide a different update experience that should address a number of the most egregious problems discussed thus far. In particular:

* Failure of an update to successfully apply to a user's system
* Failure to adequately roll back a partial or failed update, thus leaving the user's system in an unusable state
* The update process interferes with users trying to get their own work done

When we started out the design for the new Adobe Updater we set a few simple goals:

* Make the Adobe Updater install the updates successfully and if the updater fails, ensure whatever was installed as part of updater is rolled back and the machine is back to its orginal state.
* Make the Adobe Updater non-intrusive. The Adobe Updater should not interfere with the user's tasks by poping dialogs in middle of your extremely critical workflows. It will not be an in your face application.
* Make sure the Adobe Updater when running does not hog your CPU cycles.
* Using the Adobe Updater should be a pleasant experience.
* Checking for updates is silent and the notification for available updates is clean and unobtrusive.
* Provide ways for system administrators to turn-off updates completly. Secondarily, we also want to enable easier management of updates by system administrators.

In order to achieve the desired reliability, sensitivity to system CPU cycles and roll back ability, the updates themselves will use the exact same deployment engine as the original installer. In past versions, the updater was managed by one team while the patches and installation were managed by another team. We've brought these teams together into a single organization for better cooperation between them. The technology that lays the bits down on the users' systems at install time will now be the same technology that updates the products post-install. This solution simplifies the implementation and makes it more robust by having consistent use of installed component databases and deployment strategy.

In order to ensure the updater is non-intrusive, we intend to have the client machine know about each update within 24 hours of that update being advertised by Adobe servers; however, users are notified either when they quit their app (not at app launch or in the middle of application use) or by an unobtrusive notification elsewhere on the system (e.g. a badge on the right side of the menu bar on a Mac.) There are two main parts to this approach:

1) Let the client machine know about updates as soon as it is hosted and made available by Adobe. To achieve this goal the updater will not be linked to Adobe product launch. Instead it will run as a scheduled activity independent of any product. During installation of an Adobe product, the Adobe Updater will be added as a task to the Task scheduler on Windows and as a Launch Demon on Macintosh. This step will help the updater perform a scheduled check for updates in silent mode. Such silent checks should occur at 2:00 am.

Minimal resources are used to check for updates. If you are not online at 2:00 am no connection will be initiated. The updater will wait until the following day at 2am to check again.

2) Once the update is discovered and downloaded, notification for the update is non-intrusive. In particular, there is no popup dialog that tells you an update is available and requires your attention. The notification itself will depend on the platform; but, will be somewhat similar to other status notifications on that platform. For example, on Mac the notification will likely be a badge on the right side of the menu bar indicating the status of an update. This is much like the status of other Mac services such as Time Machine or instant messaging clients.

If the user takes action on the notification then a dialog will appear that lists what applications have updates available and provide easy access to user preferences. As in CS4, all updates are cumulative. This means you should not see one update after another in serial for any given product.

There are a few more items to touch upon here:

Updates UI - When launching the updater, it will be possible to explore each product with an update to see which updates are pending, a description of the update and what other products are affected by those updates.
Notification UI - When you express interest in an update notification, a dialog will display showing which Creative Suite products have pending updates. It will be possible to explore each product with an update to see which updates are pending, a description of the update and what other products are affected by those updates. It is also possible to access user preferences from this dialog.

Preferences - To let users control Updater behavior, there will be preferences options for
a) Turn on / off menu notification
b) Disable/enable Auto updates for CSXS Services.
c) Auto download/install updates.

Enterprise Support - Support for volume deployments include the ability to turn off the entire update system at install time as well as the above mentioned user preferences. In addition, we have tentative plans for post-ship delivery of instructions on how to host Adobe's patches directly on your own servers. This enables end users to use our Adobe Updater but recognize, download and apply patches directly from volume customers' own servers.

Scheduled Check for Updates - Update checks would run as a scheduled activity; on Windows as a task (in the Task scheduler) and on Mac as a Launch Agent (via plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents). This check would be performed on daily basis at 2:00 am. If the system is asleep at 2:00 am, then the next check for an update would occur when the system awakens. If system was shutdown at 2:00 am then update check would be performed at restart/user logon (via Run key on Windows and plist in /Library/LaunchAgents on Mac). If still there is a missed update check in past 24 hours, product launch would ensure that an update check is scheduled to occur after 2 hours.

Non-Admin Users - User's without an admin account can now install the update from normal user account with the typical admin password prompt. This will be possible for all platforms except Win Vista where UAC has been disabled.

Hope the insight in to the new Adobe Updater is useful and provides some information on what we are planning for the next revision. Your comments and feedback are most welcome and we look forward to an healthy discussion and do any course correction if needed.

Updated: Based on the comments below, there have been three updates above. Two sections were added to clarify behavior (Scheduled Check for Updates and Non-Admin Users.) Further detail has been added to the preferences section as well. --Eric

Installation problems occur when deployment tools are used to alter or repackage the executable behavior. One example of this is installation via an application snapshot (a.k.a. – application cloning). Application snapshot refers to taking a before and after picture of a hard drive during the installation of a product. The resulting files will give you a list of everything that was placed onto the drive during installation. This does not work well because these systems copy the licensing database files that are specific to a given application. Specifically, this is an issue when you are creating snap shots of several different suite applications and install them on the same computer. Each time you place a snapshot down on a client, the same licensing files keep getting overwritten.

Some customers have been able to work around this issue on the Mac by creating a common set of shared files that make up all the applications they intend to install. This way these customers install the necessary licensing files once and then have the ability to independently install each application without overwriting any information.

Adobe does conduct basic testing with push workflows on Windows System Center Configuration Manager and Apple Remote Desktop tools. Other vendors provide deployment details specific to Adobe products on their websites. I have highlighted several vendors below that are frequently referenced by our customers along with links to relevant documentation. There are many more not referenced here. If you have a deployment tool that your organization used to successfully deploy CS3 or CS4 that is not listed here, please feel free to comment on it or email me directly at chohman@adobe.com with your thoughts on the tool.

Thanks,
Chris Hohman
Creative Suite Product Manager

Deployment tool vendors listed in alphabetical order:

Apple Remote Desktop

Filewave

- Deploying Updates to CS3 using Filewave
- Deploying CS3 for the first time using Filewave

JAMF Software

- Deploying CS3 with Casper Suite movie

LANDesk

LANrev

- CS Deployment Options using LANrev

Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager

Radmind

Acrobatcom-fr_FR – This payload is a dummy payload that really deploys nothing. It is used in order to conform to French legal rules that all components sold in France must be able to display using the French language. Since Acrobat.com was not localized to French in CS4, we could not install nor support that component in French installations. No point product features will break if this payload is not deployed.

Acrobatcom-mul – This is the payload for deploying the Acrobat.com feature set for all supported languages.

AdobeAcrobat9-cs_CZ - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Polish. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-es_ES - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Spanish (European), Spanish (Latin American), Italian, Dutch and Portuguese (European and Brazilian.) Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-fr_FR - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for German, International English, US English, French (European) and French (Canadian.) Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-ja_JP - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Japanese. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-ko_KR - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Korean. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-ru_RU - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Ukranian. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-sv_SE - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAcrobat9-zh_TW - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9 Pro for Traditional Chinese. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 Pro will not be installed for the given locales. Note that the Mac Acrobat 9 Pro build has fewer locales supported and so only has a single, multilingual installer.

AdobeAfterEffects9All - This is the core payload for After Effects 9. Without this payload, After Effects 9 will not be installed. It includes all languages supported by After Effects on the given media.

AdobeAfterEffects9PresetsAll - This payload contains specialized preference settings for After Effects 9. Without this payload After Effects 9 will not have all its presets loaded on the system at install time.

AdobeAfterEffects9ProtectedAll - There is some content for After Effects that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders/decoders, etc. Without this protected content some primary workflows for After Effects 9 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeAIR1.0 - The Adobe AIR Runtime 1.0 installer is wrapped by this payload. It actually executes the publicly available AIR Runtime 1.0 installer. Any and all behavior in the AIR installer will also occur when deploying this payload. Not deploying this payload will mean that no AIR-based products will function. AIR-based products in CS4 include only Acrobat.com and Adobe Media Player.

AdobeALMAnchorService2-mul - This payload is needed to support 32-bit point product provisioning. Without this payload the 32-bit products will not correctly serialize or activate. Products will then cease to execute. All products in the suite are 32-bit products. Only Photoshop has a 64-bit product in addition to the 32-bit Photoshop.

AdobeALMAnchorService2-mul-x64 - This payload is needed to support 64-bit point product provisioning. Without this payload the 64-bit products will not correctly serialize or activate. Products will then cease to execute. Only Photoshop has a 64-bit product in addition to the 32-bit Photoshop.

AdobeAmericanEnglishSpeechAnalysisModels1All - Data for speech analysis. Video and sound applications that use speech analysis will not support this feature without the data payload being deployed.

AdobeAMP-fr_FR - This payload is a dummy payload that really deploys nothing. It is used in order to conform to French legal rules that all components sold in France must be able to display using the French language. Since Adobe Media Player was not localized to French in CS4, we could not install nor support that component in French installations. No point product features will break if this payload is not deployed.

AdobeAMP-mul - This is the payload for deploying Adobe Media Player for all languages supported by AMP.

AdobeAssetServices4All - Not listed in toolkit list; but, required for Version Cue Server. This payload deploys a service that runs as a background process. It generates thumbnails and extracts metadata for the Version Cue Server. Without this payload the Version Cue functionality and the CSXS functionality will cease to function.

AdobeAUM6.0All - This deploys the Adobe Update Manager for all supported locales. Without this payload an end user is unable to seek or deploy updates automatically or through the Help menu.

AdobeBridge3All - The Adobe Bridge product installer.

AdobeCameraRaw5.0All - This payload deploys the camera raw plugin for Photoshop and Bridge. Provides the ability to manipulate still images and allows viewing and editing of camera-native format digital negatives. Without this payload the ability to read, write or edit camera raw data will cease to function.

AdobeCameraRaw5.0All-x64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeCameraRaw5.0All. This is required only for the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

AdobeCMaps2-mul - Character mapping tables, necessary for correct font behavior. This is required for most CS4 applications.

AdobeCMaps2-mul-x64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeCMaps2-mul. This is needed only for the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

AdobeColorCommonSetCMYK2-mul - Color profiles for CMYK color spaces. Required for some of the CS4 applications. Without this payload critical color profiles for the print production workflow will not be available and products supporting the print production workflow may cease to function properly.

AdobeColorCommonSetRGB2-mul - Color profiles for RGB color spaces. Required for many of the CS4 applications. Without this payload critical, common color profiles will not be available and products may cease to function properly.

AdobeColorEU_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for the European Union region. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorJA_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorNA_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for all regions outside of the European Union and Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorEU_Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for the European Union region. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorJA_ Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorNA_ Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for all regions outside of the European Union and Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorPhotoshop2-mul - Color profiles specific to Photoshop. All other products do not use these color profiles in any way.

AdobeConnect-mul - Used to provide an in-application connection to Acrobat ConnectNow. Required for most products. Without this payload the ConnectNow feature set will not function in any supporting products (Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Contribute, Fireworks.)

AdobeContribute5-mul - Payload for Adobe Contribute 5 product.

AdobeCSIAll - Creative Services Infrastructure payload. Utility used by CSXS and the Service Manager Extension and Adobe Drive for accessing CS4 online services embedded in CS4 applications. Without this payload CSXS, the Service Manager Extension and Adobe Drive will cease to function. Required by most products.

AdobeCSIx64All - The 64-bit version of AdobeCSIAll, needed only by the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

AdobeDefaultLanguage2-mul - Used to determine the default language in which to run for Bridge and Device Central.

AdobeDeviceCentral2-mul - Payload deploying the Device Central feature set.

AdobeDreamweaver10-mul - Payload deploying the Adobe Dreamweaver 10 product.

AdobeDriveAll - Payload deploying the Adobe Drive feature set. Without this payload the Adobe Drive feature set will cease to function.

AdobeDrivex64All - The 64-bit version of AdobeDrivex64All, needed only by the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

AdobeDynamicLinkSupport1All - Support for the Dynamic Link feature set in video and audio applications. Required for AfterEffects, Encore, Flash Pro, Premiere Pro and Soundbooth.

AdobeEncore4All - Payload deploying the Adobe Encore 4 product for all languages supported by the given media.

AdobeEncore4CodecsAll - There is some content for Encore that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Encore 9 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeExtendScriptToolKit3.0.0All - Development and debugging tool for JavaScript scripts. Its easy-to-use built-in syntax checker identifies problem areas in your scripts and suggests solutions. Required for Flash, Illustrator and InDesign. Optional in other products.

AdobeExtensionManager2All - The Extension Manager application payload. Without this product workflows requiring extensions will not be available. Required for Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Optional for all other products. Available freely online from Adobe Exchange as well.

AdobeFireworks10All - Payload for Adobe Fireworks 10 product.

AdobeFlash10-en-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. English version.

AdobeFlash10-es-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. Spanish version.

AdobeFlash10-fr-ExtensionFL30 - FlashLite - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. French version.

AdobeFlash10-others-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. All other languages version.

AdobeFlash10-mul - Adobe Flash Pro 10 product installer.

AdobeFlash10-STI-en - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, English version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-es - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, Spanish version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-fr - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, French version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-other - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, all other languages version.

AdobeFlashPlayer10_axDbg_mul - A debug version of the Flash Player ActiveX plugin for use with Flash Pro to debug output from Flash Pro.

AdobeFlashPlayer10_plDbg_mul - A debug version of the Flash Player for use with Flash Pro to debug output from Flash Pro.

AdobeFontsAll - Collection of bundled Adobe fonts. Required for some CS4 Applications. InDesign will not execute without it. Optional for Photoshop.

AdobeFontsAllx64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeFontsAll so that 64-bit applications (in this case, only Photoshop) can also access fonts.

AdobeIllustrator14mul - Adobe Illustrator 14 product installer.

AdobeInDesign6AppBase-mul - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer.

AdobeInDesign6AppFSet-Japan - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer, Japan-specific resources. InDesign will not execute in Japanese without this payload installed.

AdobeInDesign6AppFSet-Roman - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer, Roman glyph-based languages resources. InDesign will not execute in all Roman-glyph based languages without this payload installed.

AdobeInDesign6CommonBase-mul - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer required payload. InDesign will not execute without this payload.

AdobeInDesign6IconHandler-mul - This payload only does very specific work to ensure the InDesign icons and bitmaps are properly used InDesign files on the system. Without this payload, InDesign files will have a generic icon when using the Explorer.

AdobeInDesign6IconHandler64-mul - The 64-bit system version of AdobeInDesign6IconHandler-mul. Without this payload, 64-bit systems will show generic icons for InDesign files.

AdobeLinguisticsAll - Spelling and hyphenation data files used by the linguistics library. Required for Contribute, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. Without this payload core, text-based features will fail to function properly.

AdobeLinguisticsAll_x64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeLinguisticsAll, used only by Photoshop.

AdobeMasterCollection4-mul-trial - Data required for trial installations.

AdobeMotionPicture2-mul - Color profiles specific to After Effects workflows. Required for After Effects primary workflows to function properly.

AdobeOnLocation4All - Adobe On Location 4 product installer.

AdobeOutputModuleAll – Export functionality for many products. Without this payload the Export feature will fail to function properly in many products and will fail to function at all in After Effects.

AdobePDFL9-mul - PDF Library files for in-application support of the PDF format. Required by most CS4 applications. Without this payload PDF support will not be available in products.

AdobePDFL9-mul-x64 - The 64-bit version of AdovePDFL9-mul, used only by Photoshop.

AdobePDFSettings9-ja_JP - Utility for creating, editing and managing specialized PDF creation settings. Required for Flash Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. This is the Japan-specific version.

AdobePDFSettings9-mul - Utility for creating, editing and managing specialized PDF creation settings. Required for Flash Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobePhotoshop11-Core - The 32-bit Adobe Photoshop 11 product installer.

AdobePhotoshop11-Core_x64 - The 64-bit Adobe Photoshop 11 product installer.

AdobePhotoshop11-Support - Hardware accelerator payload required by Photoshop in order to execute. Without this payload Photoshop will not run properly on some platforms.

AdobePremierePro4AllM - Adobe Premiere Pro 4 product installer.

AdobePremierePro4FCAll - Functional content for Premiere Pro. Without this payload the functional content will not be deployed for Premiere Pro. Critical workflows will no longer be fully-features without this content.

AdobePremierePro4ProtectedAll - There is some content for Premiere Pro that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders/decoders, etc. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Premiere Pro 4 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeSearchforHelp-mul - In-application access to online help search service. This is required by most CS4 applications. Without this payload the help search functionality will not function in-application.

AdobeServiceManager-mul - Provides an in-application connection to your account with Adobe online services. Without this payload the CSXS functionality will cease to function.

AdobeSGM3-en_US - Adobe SING Glyphlet Manager. Used only with Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts in InDesign and InCopy. Without this payload users will be unable to view characters of these languages. Useful for the Arabic, Czechoslovakian, Danish, German, Greek, International English, US English, Spanish (European and Latin American), Finnish, French (European and Canadian), Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukranian versions of InDesign.

AdobeSGM3-ja_JP - Adobe SING Glyphlet Manager. Used only with Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of InDesign and InCopy. Without this payload users will be unable to view characters of these languages. Useful for the Japanese version of InDesign.

AdobeSGM3-ko_KR - Adobe SING Glyphlet Manager. Used only with Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of InDesign and InCopy. Without this payload users will be unable to view characters of these languages. Useful for the Korean version of InDesign.

AdobeSGM3-zh_TW - Adobe SING Glyphlet Manager. Used only with Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of InDesign and InCopy. Without this payload users will be unable to view characters of these languages. Useful for the Traditional Chinese version of InDesign.

AdobeSING2-mul - Smart Independent Glyphlets. Required for InDesign, InCopy and SING Glyphlet Manager. It provides management of Asian characters. SING is required for InDesign and InCopy in all languages to open and modify documents containing embedded asian glyphlets.

AdobeSoundbooth2All - Adobe Soundbooth 2 product installer.

AdobeSoundbooth2CodecsAll - There is some content for Soundbooth that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Soundbooth 2 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeSuiteSharedConfiguration-mul - Flexible serialization and BridgeTalk group information are both contained in this payload. Without this payload the products will fail to activate and no longer execute.

AdobeTypeSupport9-mul - Type support required by most CS4 applications in order to accurately display fonts. Without this payload most applications will fail to execute.

AdobeTypeSupport9-mul-x64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeTypeSupport9-mul, used only by Photoshop.

AdobeVersionCue4All - Payload enabling Version Cue functionality. Optional in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash Pro. Without this payload Version Cue functionality will fail to execute.

AdobeVideoProfilesAE2-mul - Color profiles specific to After Effects.

AdobeVideoProfilesCS2-mul - Color profiles specific to video workflows in Photoshop. Video workflows in Photoshop will continue to work without these profiles; but, will not have useful color profiles available.

AdobeWinSoftLinguisticsPluginAll - A variant on AdobeLinguisticsAll specific for Middle Eastern, North African and Central European languages.

AdobeWinSoftLinguisticsPluginAll_x64 - The 64-bit version of AdobeWinSoftLinguisticsPluginAll, used only by Photoshop.

AdobeXMPPanelsAll - This payload installs the XMP metadata read/write/edit feature set in most point products. Without this payload none of the UI for supporting XMP metadata will be available. This payload is require for most products; but, optional for Soundbooth.

aifsdk-win - This payload includes the Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, an IDE for working with the Pixel Bender image and video processing infrastructure.

AMEAdditionalExporter1All - The payload for the Adobe Media Exporter application extensions used with Flash Pro, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Without this payload the Adobe Media Exporter will fail to execute.

AMECore1All - Payload continuing the Adobe Media Exporter application, used in common workflows with Flash Pro, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

AMEDolby1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg decoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AMEExporter1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg decoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AMEImporter1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

kuler2.0-mul - The kuler CSXS extension payload. Without this extension point products should continue to function properly but without the kuler functionality.

MSXML6.0 - The MicroSoft XML Core Services module, used for MSXML support by most products in the suite.

Updated (May 26, 09): Updated a few typos and strings above.

Update: Changed title to be more clear.

One request we’ve received repeatedly is for a description of each payload in Master Collection CS4 and what it does. In addition, users want to know what will break if a particular payload is not deployed. Much of this information is in the CS4 Enterprise Deployment Toolkit Guide. I’ll include information from the Deployment Toolkit Guide and add to that information here. This list includes everything from the CS4 Master Collection Mac installer.

Acrobatcom-fr_FR – This payload is a dummy payload that really deploys nothing. It is used in order to conform to French legal rules that all components sold in France must be able to display using the French language. Since Acrobat.com was not localized to French in CS4, we could not install nor support that component in French installations. No point product features will break if this payload is not deployed.

Acrobatcom-mul – This is the payload for deploying the Acrobat.com feature set for all supported languages.

AdobeAcrobat9Core-mul - This is the core payload for Acrobat 9. Without this payload, Acrobat 9 will not be installed. It includes all languages supported by Acrobat on the given media.

AdobeAfterEffects9All - This is the core payload for After Effects 9. Without this payload, After Effects 9 will not be installed. It includes all languages supported by After Effects on the given media.

AdobeAfterEffects9PresetsAll - This payload contains specialized preference settings for After Effects 9. Without this payload After Effects 9 will not have all its presets loaded on the system at install time.

AdobeAfterEffects9ProtectedAll - There is some content for After Effects that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders/decoders, etc. Without this protected content some primary workflows for After Effects 9 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeAIR1.0 - The Adobe AIR Runtime 1.0 installer is wrapped by this payload. It actually executes the publicly available AIR Runtime 1.0 installer. Any and all behavior in the AIR installer will also occur when deploying this payload. Not deploying this payload will mean that no AIR-based products will function. AIR-based products in CS4 include only Acrobat.com and Adobe Media Player.

AdobeALMAnchorService2-mul - This payload is required to support point product provisioning. Without this payload the products will not correctly serialize or activate. Products will then cease to execute.

AdobeAmericanEnglishSpeechAnalysisModels1All - Data for speech analysis. Video and sound applications that use speech analysis will not support this feature without the data payload being deployed.

AdobeAMP-fr_FR - This payload is a dummy payload that really deploys nothing. It is used in order to conform to French legal rules that all components sold in France must be able to display using the French language. Since Adobe Media Player was not localized to French in CS4, we could not install nor support that component in French installations. No point product features will break if this payload is not deployed.

AdobeAMP-mul - This is the payload for deploying Adobe Media Player for all languages supported by AMP.

AdobeAssetServices4All - Not listed in toolkit list; but, required for Version Cue Server. This payload deploys a service that runs as a background process. It generates thumbnails and extracts metadata for the Version Cue Server. Without this payload the Version Cue functionality and the CSXS functionality will cease to function.

AdobeAUM6.0All - This deploys the Adobe Update Manager for all supported locales. Without this payload an end user is unable to seek or deploy updates automatically or through the Help menu.

AdobeBridge3All - The Adobe Bridge product installer.

AdobeCameraRaw5.0All - This payload deploys the camera raw plugin for Photoshop and Bridge. Provides the ability to manipulate still images and allows viewing and editing of camera-native format digital negatives. Without this payload the ability to read, write or edit camera raw data will cease to function.

AdobeCMaps2-mul - Character mapping tables, necessary for correct font behavior. This is required for most CS4 applications.

AdobeColorCommonSetCMYK2-mul - Color profiles for CMYK color spaces. Required for some of the CS4 applications. Without this payload critical color profiles for the print production workflow will not be available and products supporting the print production workflow may cease to function properly.

AdobeColorCommonSetRGB2-mul - Color profiles for RGB color spaces. Required for many of the CS4 applications. Without this payload critical, common color profiles will not be available and products may cease to function properly.

AdobeColorEU_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for the European Union region. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorJA_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorNA_ExtraSettings2-mul - Extra color profiles for all regions outside of the European Union and Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorEU_Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for the European Union region. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorJA_ Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorNA_ Recommended2-mul - Recommended color profiles for all regions outside of the European Union and Japan. Required for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobeColorPhotoshop2-mul - Color profiles specific to Photoshop. All other products do not use these color profiles in any way.

AdobeConnect-mul - Used to provide an in-application connection to Acrobat ConnectNow. Required for most products. Without this payload the ConnectNow feature set will not function in any supporting products (Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Contribute, Fireworks.)

AdobeContribute5-mul - Payload for Adobe Contribute 5 product.

AdobeCSIAll - Creative Services Infrastructure payload. Utility used by CSXS and the Service Manager Extension and Adobe Drive for accessing CS4 online services embedded in CS4 applications. Without this payload CSXS, the Service Manager Extension and Adobe Drive will cease to function. Required by most products.

AdobeDefaultLanguage2-mul - Used to determine the default language in which to run for Bridge and Device Central.

AdobeDeviceCentral2-mul - Payload deploying the Device Central feature set.

AdobeDreamweaver10-mul - Payload deploying the Adobe Dreamweaver 10 product.

AdobeDriveAll - Payload deploying the Adobe Drive feature set. Without this payload the Adobe Drive feature set will cease to function.

AdobeDynamicLinkSupport1All - Support for the Dynamic Link feature set in video and audio applications. Required for AfterEffects, Encore, Flash Pro, Premiere Pro and Soundbooth.

AdobeEncore4All - Payload deploying the Adobe Encore 4 product for all languages supported by the given media.

AdobeEncore4CodecsAll - There is some content for Encore that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Encore 9 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeExtendScriptToolKit3.0.0All - Development and debugging tool for JavaScript scripts. Its easy-to-use built-in syntax checker identifies problem areas in your scripts and suggests solutions. Required for Flash, Illustrator and InDesign. Optional in other products.

AdobeExtensionManager2All - The Extension Manager application payload. Without this product workflows requiring extensions will not be available. Required for Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Optional for all other products. Available freely online from Adobe Exchange as well.

AdobeFireworks10All - Payload for Adobe Fireworks 10 product.

AdobeFlash10-en-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. English version.

AdobeFlash10-es-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. Spanish version.

AdobeFlash10-fr-ExtensionFL30 - FlashLite - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. French version.

AdobeFlash10-others-ExtensionFL30 - Adobe Flash Lite extension for Flash Pro. Without this payload the Flash Lite workflows in Flash Pro will cease to function. All other languages version.

AdobeFlash10-mul - Adobe Flash Pro 10 product installer.

AdobeFlash10-STI-en - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, English version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-es - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, Spanish version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-fr - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, French version.

AdobeFlash10-STI-other - Flash Player 10 plugin/extension, all other languages version.

AdobeFontsAll - Collection of bundled Adobe fonts. Required for some CS4 Applications. InDesign will not execute without it. Optional for Photoshop.

AdobeIllustrator14mul - Adobe Illustrator 14 product installer.

AdobeInDesign6AppBase-mul - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer.

AdobeInDesign6AppFSet-Japan - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer, Japan-specific resources. InDesign will not execute in Japanese without this payload installed.

AdobeInDesign6AppFSet-Roman - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer, Roman glyph-based languages resources. InDesign will not execute in all Roman-glyph based languages without this payload installed.

AdobeInDesign6CommonBase-mul - Adobe InDesign 6 product installer required payload. InDesign will not execute without this payload.

AdobeLinguisticsAll - Spelling and hyphenation data files used by the linguistics library. Required for Contribute, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. Without this payload core, text-based features will fail to function properly.

AdobeMasterCollection4-mul-trial - Data required for trial installations.

AdobeMotionPicture2-mul - Color profiles specific to After Effects workflows. Required for After Effects primary workflows to function properly.

AdobeOnLocation4All - Adobe On Location 4 product installer.

AdobeOutputModuleAll – Export functionality for many products. Without this payload the Export feature will fail to function properly in many products and will fail to function at all in After Effects.

AdobePDFL9-mul - PDF Library files for in-application support of the PDF format. Required by most CS4 applications. Without this payload PDF support will not be available in products.

AdobePDFSettings9-ja_JP - Utility for creating, editing and managing specialized PDF creation settings. Required for Flash Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. This is the Japan-specific version.

AdobePDFSettings9-mul - Utility for creating, editing and managing specialized PDF creation settings. Required for Flash Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

AdobePhotoshop11-Core - Adobe Photoshop 11 product installer.

AdobePhotoshop11-Support - Hardware accelerator payload required by Photoshop in order to execute. Without this payload Photoshop will not run properly on some platforms.

AdobePremierePro4AllM - Adobe Premiere Pro 4 product installer.

AdobePremierePro4FCAll - Functional content for Premiere Pro. Without this payload the functional content will not be deployed for Premiere Pro. Critical workflows will no longer be fully-features without this content.

AdobePremierePro4ProtectedAll - There is some content for Premiere Pro that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders/decoders, etc. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Premiere Pro 4 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeSearchforHelp-mul - In-application access to online help search service. This is required by most CS4 applications. Without this payload the help search functionality will not function in-application.

AdobeServiceManager-mul - Provides an in-application connection to your account with Adobe online services. Without this payload the CSXS functionality will cease to function.

AdobeSGM3 - Adobe SING Glyphlet Manager. Used only with Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of InDesign and InCopy. Without this payload users will be unable to view characters of these languages.

AdobeSING2-mul - Smart Independent Glyphlets. Required for InDesign, InCopy and SING Glyphlet Manager. It provides management of Asian characters. SING is required for InDesign and InCopy in all languages to open and modify documents containing embedded asian glyphlets.

AdobeSoundbooth2All - Adobe Soundbooth 2 product installer.

AdobeSoundbooth2CodecsAll - There is some content for Soundbooth that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs. Without this protected content some primary workflows for Soundbooth 2 will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AdobeSuiteSharedConfiguration-mul - Flexible serialization and BridgeTalk group information are both contained in this payload. Without this payload the products will fail to activate and no longer execute.

AdobeTypeSupport9-mul - Type support required by most CS4 applications in order to accurately display fonts. Without this payload most applications will fail to execute.

AdobeUtilities2-mul - Language resources for localizing the folder name of the Utilities folder on the Mac platform. Without this payload the ExtendScript Toolkit functionality will not function properly.

AdobeVersionCue4All - Payload enabling Version Cue funcitonality. Required by InCopy, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash Pro. With this payload Version Cue functionality will fail to execute.

AdobeVideoProfilesAE2-mul - Color profiles specific to After Effects.

AdobeVideoProfilesCS2-mul - Color profiles specific to video workflows in Photoshop. Video workflows in Photoshop will continue to work without these profiles; but, will not have useful color profiles available.

AdobeWinSoftLinguisticsPluginAll - A variant on AdobeLinguisticsAll specific for Middle Eastern, North African and Central European languages.

AdobeXMPPanelsAll - This payload installs the XMP metadata read/write/edit feature set in most point products. Without this payload none of the UI for supporting XMP metadata will be available. This payload is require for most products; but, optional for Soundbooth.

aifsdk-mac - This payload includes the Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, an IDE for working with the Pixel Bender image and video processing infrastructure.

AMEAdditionalExporter1All - The payload for the Adobe Media Exporter application extensions used with Flash Pro, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Without this payload the Adobe Media Exporter will fail to execute.

AMECore1All - Payload continuing the Adobe Media Exporter application, used in common workflows with Flash Pro, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

AMEDolby1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg decoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AMEExporter1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg decoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

AMEImporter1All - There is some content for the Adobe Media Encoder that must not be deployed and unencrypted without first verifying the serial number used for deployment is valid. This content generally includes royalty-bearing items such as codecs, mpeg encoders, etc. Without this protected content some workflows for the Adobe Media Encoder will not be supported. The installation technology will verify that a valid serial number is used.

FPPluginMac_STI - The web browser plugin for Adobe Flash Player. This is required by Flash Pro for critical user workflows.

kuler2.0-mul - The kuler CSXS extension payload. Without this extension point products should continue to function properly but without the kuler functionality.

With the release of every product, inevitably customers will encounter some problems. Adobe Customer Care strives to provide support for current issues and to ensure that problems are addressed in future releases of our software. I am a member of the Technical Response Team, and we are the liaison between tech support agents around the globe and the engineering teams. We handle escalations, collect and analyze call trends to provide feedback to product teams on top issues.

With the Adobe Creative Suite 4 products, we greatly improved messaging around installation errors. If an installation wasn’t completely successful, you will see a dialog box with the error message encountered during the installation. The error message allows you to search for solutions in our Knowledge Base, http://www.adobe.com/support/. We are constantly creating and updating support documentation on the latest issues.

We also introduced a new tool with the Adobe Creative Suite 4 products that increases your ability to find resolutions to installation problems. In the ‘More Information’ dialog at the end of a failed or partial installation you can click Get Support. The Get Support option directs you to a tool called the Adobe Support Advisor (ASA), http://www.adobe.com/go/loganalyzer . The ASA tool is designed to analyze Adobe Creative Suite 3 and 4 logs on your machine and to display any known technical support documentation for your issue. This allows you to find solutions to your installation problem without having to search the support site or contacting Adobe Customer Care.

We recognize that we have not documented every installation problem (yet), but the ASA tool has a ‘Package for Support’ option that allows you to upload a package to Customer Care which can help us identify the source of your installation failure. The package contains your installation log file, the search results we found (which includes information on unknown issues), and a basic system information file. This information is assigned a unique token that only Adobe employees have access to.

When you exit the ASA tool you are also prompted to report the found issues to Adobe. If you click okay to accept, a small file containing statistical data about the failures you encountered during the installation process is submitted. The statistical data in that file cannot be linked to an individual machine and is intended to provide us with information on common failures.

The Technical Response Team is updating the ASA tool frequently to provide solutions for the issues we are seeing. Both Eric Wilde’s engineering team and the Technical Response Team are committed to eliminate known installation failures and the Adobe Support Advisor is a great tool that can get us there.

David Johnson
Technical Response Team

--Eric Wilde

***

Installer design is a special treat for an experience designer - the best user experience is no experience at all. It’s usually unfamiliar; it’s putting bits on your system and words like “fear” come up routinely. No matter what you’re installing or how technical you are, retail customers go through the same series of steps in the same order. Then it might take time; and, btw you have insufficient RAM. We know.

Much of the installation frustration is about how long it takes. As designers, we’re focused on most everything else - working towards easy and clear - and designing a more responsive UI and workflow. As users, we’re focused on getting through the installer quickly and getting to the product. How do we keep the installer out of sight and facilitate a safe installation?

In the CS4 and past install experiences, the installer asked that some applications and browsers be closed, right away. So it’s technically safer, but a more intrusive user experience. Opening those apps during the actual installation step could actually lead to problems… (resource files and other shared components get used and sometimes locked by other apps.)

This balance sits right between back-end facts and an optimally designed workflow. In the end you need both - successful installation, positive experience.

***

In CS5, one of our design principles is to Be Respectful. It’s your machine, after all. The design focus is shifting to allow work to continue, and the installer gets a little smarter about sharing with other applications.

The design challenge is clearly messaging about what comes up, options, or when to close another application if it’s unavoidable. From a design perspective, the error prevention and handling model has been a key focus.

As much as possible we promote more system self-sufficiency in error management… things go wrong. I believe that feedback shouldn’t criticize you. Did you actually make a mistake by using Word? Do people err? When is the right time to communicate system requirements? When we have to indicate something isn’t right, the focus should be on instructive information. To that end we can display messaging inline, contextually.

***

Showing the right amount of information on the custom options screen - but only what’s relevant - is a key design challenge. The interface should enable quick scanning and choosing what you want to install. Not hiding info on one hand, but not bothering you on the other. And which pieces really matter? Showing the information that matters in clear, honest ways goes right to trust - and installation is the 1st Adobe experience with whichever product you just got.

This single configuration screen shows which products can be installed, where they are going on the HD, how much room they take up, just for starters. And then there is the how much to show, by default - a question we’ve been working on with research and testing. Seeing components shared between some apps, with varying degrees of dependence just brings up more questions. On the flip side, not displaying those details means you dig around, wondering.

Except for system administrators, it’s a 1st experience for most people. Because of that key fact, I return to the definition of intuitive as familiar, in brainstorming and reviewing this screen.

In revisiting the configuration screen (much discussed on YouTube), one idea stands out: nobody wants to configure. The strategic goal here is to be up-front but not overwhelming. At the tactical level, it’s an easy, explicit interaction. It’s honoring the no-configure idea by avoiding expand/collapse arrows or pull-downs, using any tools available to reduce the effort it takes to unselect or see more.

All the UI stuff - text and controls - should support the user making an informed decision, simply and accurately. It’s a tough challenge. Accurate just isn’t that simple.

***

The XD process has included going through feedback, user testing with users and going through more installs than my computer ever asked for. Figuring out how to best represent the various parts and their relationship - or not - has left us with an interesting gallery of non-working designs along the path. Since the install experience is workflow driven, we work closely with development to have a shared understanding of that flow.

Getting to that balance between safe and invisible, we try to tilt the whole notion of installing towards a successful experience. If it’s positive, you might just notice it less.

My name is Chris Hohman and I have been a Product Manager with Adobe for the last 2.5yrs. Working on improvements to the enterprise deployment experience since I began, I am now fully indoctrinated into the land of OOBE. It was speaking with customers like you that inspired the creation of the Adobe Creative Suites 4 Deployment Toolkit (CSDT). Hey it is a start, and there will be more to come.

Let me also introduce the CSDT if you are not familiar with it. The CSDT is an efficient, easy-to-use, and reliable application that configures Adobe Creative Suite 4’s installers for silent deployment. It’s Adobe AIR-based (Adobe Integrated Runtime) interface allows you to create a remotely deployable install package without laboriously hand-editing configuration files. More information can be found at http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/openoptions/cs/deployment_toolkit.html

Setting up multiple distribution points using Microsoft SMS 2003 /SCCM 2007 and the Adobe CS4 Deployment Toolkit

On a recent customer visit, our team was able to address an issue relevant to many of you that set up multiple distribution points spanning across more than one server.

Here’s what you need to know:

Microsoft SMS/SCCM provides the ability to deploy from a common shared file. Here are the details straight from the MS website, “At installation, SMS assigns the distribution point role to the site server. You can create additional distribution points to reduce the load on the site server and provide access to all client computers in your site. If software distribution in your SMS system includes multiple sites, specify a distribution point in each site to ensure access by client computers and to distribute the load.”
“If you use the common SMS package shared folder on distribution points, when the first package is sent to a distribution point, the distribution point is given the share name \\computername\SMSPKGdriveletter$ on the NTFS drive that contains the most available space.”

The CSDT requires an absolute path to the source install location in the AdobeUberInstaller.XML and AdobeUberUninstaller.XML files and this causes problems with the share location.
Load distribution can be achieved by changing the UNC install location path of the UberInstaller to the local parent directory of each DP server.

This is accomplished as follows:
1. Use the CSDT to create a package normally.
2. Open the AdobeUberInstaller.xml in an editor and replace the UNC parameters with a “/.” to indicate that it needs to refer to the parent drive of the server. Please note that the usual value of the "InstallerLocation" parameter is taken from the same "Media Path" which you selected in the first screen of the CS Deployment Toolkit.
3. Repeat for the AdobeUberUninstaller.xml.
4. On the source server, place the full adobe installer including all payloads and extensions along with the two modified XML files and the two executables created by the CSDT.
5. Use this source location to set up the SMS/SCCM packages
6. Repeat this process across all servers used for load balancing

This process can help you set up SMS using the CSDT. It has worked for two customers and counting. If you know of an alternative way to accomplish this same task, please share.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Cheers until next time.

Chris
chohman@adobe.com

A slight bit of history and maybe a bit of overlap to what Eric wrote in his previous blog; so please bear with me on this one. Note that this article focuses on retail installers. Enterprise deployment considerations are significantly different and will be handled in future posts.

A long time ago when Adobe was not releasing the Creative Suites, life in installer land was very pretty and relatively straightforward. Each team that released a product had a Windows & Mac engineer releasing native installers. The installers were industry standard and worked well and then the Creative Suite came along and changed everything.

Lets take a look at how the first Creative Suite was accomplished.

In the first Creative Suite, all individual products were using InstallShield or MindVision to create non-MSI installers on Windows and Vise Packages on Mac. A team was put together and wrote installers for the Creative Suite that assembled and installed the individual installers in silent mode. At that time there were many engineers each working on individual applications. These engineers working on the individual product installers and the Creative Suite installers ensured six products (Win & Mac) were assembled into a single Creative Suite installer (Win & Mac). The efficiency in original Creative Suite installer development was two engineers per individual product.

It worked great for the Creative Suite as it was custom assembled; but, for every change required by the Creative Suite each product’s installer engineers had to change their code to accommodate the requirements of the Creative Suite. This became a coordination nightmare. We had a staggering number of install order incompatibilities, and we routinely had individual product installers stomping on each other. There was a lot of testing that went into Creative Suite installers that didn't go into general co-existence issues, and in fact a lot of the fixes in suite installers depended on the particular order of installation of the products in the suite. It was, however, still manageable even though the teams working on the individual product installers were in three different geographies (San Jose, Seattle, and Hamburg). One thing was clear going in to Creative Suite 2, we had solve the issue of file sets that were common across many individual products in the Creative Suite.

A look at how the Creative Suite 2 was done.

As the team started on Creative Suite 2, it was decided to standardize on MSI (InstallShield) and Apple Packages for Mac. Standard templates were created, all of the Creative Suite requirements for the installer functionality were moved to scripts and DLLs, (written once but used by everyone) and the Creative Suite Installer team worked on another custom installer to bring them all together.

Since we had a very obvious issue of files being stomped all over the place in the first Creative Suite, we solved the issue by introducing the common files installer (aka shared component installers.) See the note below on MSI and shared compoqnents. Another problem became the co-ordination among installer engineering to pick-up the right version of the common code implemented in DLLs and scripts. Any mismatch meant some Creative Suite functionality was broken. The overwhelming complexity brought in by Creative Suite 2 was a major indicator that for Creative Suite 3 installers would have to use a different technology.

A look at how the Creative Suite 3 was done.

As the team formed in Creative Suite 3 to look at this problem, they had a bigger problem at hand. The acquisition of Macromedia brought many very different products into the Creative Suite. These products plus the integration of the video and audio products in CS3 resulted in much more complexity from the sheer size of the Creative Suite. No longer could we enjoy the luxury of having 1 installer per product. They had to solve this by coming up with a solution that created installers that shared code, could be used across six different Creative Suite offerings, create installers that could simply plug into the Creative Suite architecture, solve package management problems, implement new functionality and requirements, all while keeping the overall installers easy to create.

Phew, there's a bit of history on how the Creative Suites were accomplished. Now lets talk a bit about the technology itself,

Folks always asked me, "Why do you have to make it so complex!! Microsoft Office is a suite of applications and they have MSI-based installers. Why can't Adobe do this?"

Okay, Let’s investigate MSI a bit.

MSI is valuable installation technology for delivering individual products and it does a great job handling all of the installation needs (performance can be a bit more desirable, but hey, if it is reliable then performance can take a back seat for now). But where it breaks down is handling a suite of applications as well as shared components that are independently updatable.

Before we go any further, let me take a brief moment to define what I mean by "shared component" or, in Adobe nomenclature, “Shared Technology Installer”. Many of the Adobe products use certain functionality that is shared between more than one product. These functionalities are called shared components. Shared components should have their own installers and should be managed in such a way that install/uninstall of a particular software that uses the shared component does not break any other software using that shared component. This involves reference counting of that shared component on the end-user’s machine in some way. Examples of shared components are Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Extension Manager, Adobe Bridge, Dynamic Link, CMaps, TypeSupport and the list goes on. Organizationally, these components are owned by different teams who deliver the shared component to each product team. Shared components are delivered as standalone installers for integration purposes.

By now an MSI expert is thinking “Why installers? Why doesn't Adobe release MSM for the teams to integrate?” Good Question.

Here is why we could not release MSM for shared components:

a) Integration of MSM into an MSI installer means literal addition of these files into the product's MSI and Cab file. If two such products are in a Creative Suite that effectively means you just doubled the space of the media and also means you increased the size of the electronic software download. Now imagine what the Master Collection would look like with all of those duplicates, many of which are in four or more products.
b) Once the MSM's become part of the MSI then those files are not part of the main installers. Once this happen, creating a patch/release/upgrade of the shared component would be a nightmare and in some cases impossible due to the constraints imposed by MSI on upgrades and patches.
c) Now imagine you are on the verge of shipping the Creative Suite. There is a bug in the shared component and a fix is released. If the fix is in an MSM file then every product that included the MSM must rebuild and recertify. This can very readily lead to a slip of the shipment date.

I am not saying that releasing the shared components as installers is the only answer to this; but, it did solve some of our major requirements:

a) Since we released shared components as installers, these installers could now be plugged in to the product installer. The integration became easy. When a Creative Suite was created we needed to carry one copy of the shared component installer.
b) Creation of patches for these shared components is not a problem because they are treated as a product itself.

Once we decided to go with installers it introduced a host of other issues that we had to solve:

a) Reference counting (one more reason why MSI’s can’t be used for the Creative Suites or individual products in the case of Adobe products) - Since MSI only does component ref-count we had to now keep track of the installer ref-count. No one does this currently. We had to come up with a way to handle this.
b) Versioning issues – We now had to make sure that the installers didn’t install the wrong or older version of a shared component.

Apple Packages and Creative Suite Installers

When we first started investigating what installer technology to use for Mac Installers, it was obvious that we should be using Apple PKG and MPKG formats.
In Creative Suite 2, all the individual product installers did use PKG and MPKG formats. As we dug in to Apple PackageMaker we encountered the following issues that made us look at other options.

a) No script can be executed before the UI starts (so that we can check for OS, conflicting process, incompatible versions of application installation, check for pre-release versions, etc).
b) We could not show a serial number dialog as part of the installer workflow.
c) Decision from a script directly affects the selection of items in the UI.
d) Add custom UI and custom messages and insert them into the different workflows, (install, re-install and uninstall workflows)
e) Selection/De-Selection of one package in the options screen must affect other items and prevent users from making an incompatible selection.
f) Prompt for disk-swap when an installer switches from one media to another.
g) Ease of installer creation when it comes to shared technologies, individual products and their integration into Creative Suites.

Here is a simple table that illustrates where MSI and Apple PKG format do or do not meet our needs.

In short, our determination was that the native platform installers would not allow us to get the reliability, flexibility and engineering efficiencies of shared component install, package management, and the UI flexibility we needed for our suite installers. We realize that the lack of native installers for our products has raised questions for all of our customers, and presents real problems for enterprise deployment situations. As to the questions: we hope this post has answered many of them, and we look forward to your follow-ups.

We also realize that these factors affect enterprise customers the most. We are working to make this much better. In future blog posts we will address this issue and talk to you all about the options we are thinking about to solve the pain felt by our enterprise customers and we sincerely look forward to your feedback.

Thanks,
Nagendra Bangalore
Sr, Engineering Manager
Nagendra@adobe.com

The Creative Suite has struggled for a long time with its installers. There have been complaints about installation failures or inability to deploy in an enterprise environment since CS1. In CS3 Adobe moved to its own installer technology. In a future post we’ll go through the details of why we use our own installer technology, including why MSI/PKG formats are unacceptable. For this post, I’d like to talk a little bit about what happened to the installers over the last four Creative Suite releases and the opportunities currently available to us.

CS1 was really a collection of traditional Adobe applications each with its own unique install requirements. The applications grew over literally decades into the mature Adobe applications we sell today. As such, the install requirements were diverse and sometimes not totally rational. The shared technologies in CS1 were minimal. The primary shared technology that made the aggregate applications into a “suite” was the Version Cue feature set. Given the diverse install requirements and limited shared components, CS1 continued to have each application create its own unique installer and aggregated these into a single suite installer.

CS2 was quite similar to CS1 in that the number of applications didn’t dramatically change. The install requirements of the applications were relatively constant compared to CS1. The number of shared components grew only slightly, with the introduction of the Bridge application. Even this limited set of shared components and only-slightly changing product line stretched the abilities of the platform install technologies. Creating the CS2 installers was a very costly and time consuming process. Something needed to change.

With CS3 and the inclusion of former Macromedia applications, it was very clear that the platform install technologies would not satisfy the business requirements for Creative Suite installers. So Adobe created its own install technology. For CS3, the installer was all new code. It was introduced to provide the kind of package management and flexibility needed by Adobe’s increasingly diverse install requirements. The move to our own installers was extremely challenging both for Adobe and Adobe’s customers. We’re really not in the business of creating installers and would prefer not to do so; but, given the need to rapidly integrate the former Macromedia applications with all their different installer requirements, the now significantly larger set of shared components and the experience of creating CS2 installers, it was clear that we could no longer use the platform technologies.

As I said, the move to our own installers was extremely painful for Adobe and Adobe’s customers. One could easily argue that it was a step backward. Certainly for our enterprise customers it set up really difficult road blocks to deploying the Creative Suite. So when we started work for CS4 we put lots of focus on the install technology to try to “get it right”, at least for the retail customers. The personnel also changed so that the technology was now managed by the same group responsible for the Creative Suite itself (me) – essentially, we wanted the technology team and its management to have skin in the game.

Our goal for CS4 was to make the installers work for the retail customer. It was a difficult choice because we knew the enterprise customers would continue to run across the same road blocks as with CS3. Throughout the CS3 cycle we gathered input from customer care about what problems our retail users were having and tried to ensure the CS4 installers addressed those problems. We focused on solidifying the install technology so that it worked as it was supposed to work. We operated within the limitations of the existing technology to provide a UI as stable as we could.

Lots of hard work later, we shipped CS4 and did see dramatic improvements in the installer for retail customers. Customer care calls about failed installs dropped significantly. There’s no doubt that problems still exist. The enterprise customers are still left in the lurch. The UI still has lots of room for improvement. But for retail customers, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

Now we have some opportunities ahead of us. The personnel changes that happened for CS4 allowed us to train the engineers on the technology and the problems our customers faced for installation. So the engineers can now make architectural changes to the install technology that can eliminate some of the road blocks for enterprise customers. We also have the opportunity to migrate the UI technology away from DHTML (used for CS3 and CS4) into an embedded Flash interpreter. This will allow us to have much more flexibility and stability in the UI; which will, in turn, allow us to use a better experience design. We continue to receive feedback from our customers about the problems they face when installing and will continue to tackle the most egregious problems that surface, thereby making the installers yet more stable and drive down customer care calls even further. I’m sure it still won’t be perfect; but, it had better be much better than CS3 and CS4!

We’d like to make further progress on the aforementioned architectural changes before going into the details on this blog. I’d hate to advertise a change and then have to renege on that promise a month or two later. As we do make progress we’ll advertise the changes being made so that you’re all well aware of what to expect in the next version before it ships. There may also be an opportunity to provide some changes for CS4 prior to shipping the next version, at least for changes that don’t involve massive rework or break United States accounting rules.

So that’s where we are today. We continue to gather information from World Wide Customer Care (tech support), strategic partners and users such as readers of this blog. With this information we can look at what is failing and see how we might be able to fix it. Some of those fixes can come as an update or workaround in CS4. Some of those fixes will have to come in future versions of the Creative Suite.

The comments from the first post were very encouraging. You all seem to approach this with a spirit of cooperation and are educating us on exactly what is causing you problems. As we come up with solutions and verify that those solutions are actually feasible we’ll try to let you know our plans. That way you’ll know what to expect in the future and can hopefully confirm that our plans really will satisfy most of your needs – or correct us where we run astray.

Thanks,
--Eric Wilde
Sr. Engineering Manger
ewilde@adobe.com

Let me start by introducing myself. I manage the engineering team responsible for the Creative Suite and its installer technology for CS4 (plus a few other odds and ends). For future versions of the Creative Suite I’ll also be responsible for the licensing and update technologies. I’ve been working at Adobe for over sixteen years as an engineer and, later, as an engineering manager. In the past I’ve done hardware design, core PostScript implementations, Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat plugins and various pieces of technology shared across Adobe products.

This blog is intended as a two-way communication about the “out of box experience” that users of Adobe software have when they purchase our products. Through posts on this blog we intend to communicate what is happening with the deployment (installer/updater) and provisioning (licensing) aspects of Adobe software. The scope includes everything from the time of purchase through download, installation, licensing and later updates of Adobe applications. Along the way we will provide some historical perspective for why things are this way today and where we’re going tomorrow.

In addition, we want to hear back from the Adobe community about your out of box experience. We’re under no delusion that the world of installers, updaters and licensing is just peachy. Some of you experience problems installing or updating Adobe software, particularly in enterprise environments. Likewise we have a few problems with the licensing technology for some customers. We want to hear about the problems you face and, hopefully, help to solve them. In addition, the information we get from you all through this blog will help us prioritize your needs so that we address the most important issues first, so please do respond in comments to the posts. We’ll do our best to keep up with you.

Most of the posts on this blog will be from the OOBE (“Out of Box Experience”) group for the Creative Suite products. Folks from various roles within the group will post, from engineering and program management through product management and customer care. We hope to bring in some individuals at Adobe working on similar aspects of non-Creative Suite products for guest posts as well.

Lastly, I want to thank a number of individuals in the Adobe user community for suggesting that the installer and licensing group have their own blog. It is through constructive and pointed feedback from such users that we’ve been able to address some of the more painful issues our users face. Hopefully this blog serves its purpose to educate both sides about what is happening so that Adobe’s installation and licensing experience continues to improve.

Thanks,
--Eric Wilde
Sr. Engineering Manager
ewilde@adobe.com