Adobe Installation and Licensing

It’s the holiday season and I am feeling in a giving mood. Inspired by listening to the Los Straitjackets surf rock holiday album and this eggnog I’m sipping I thought I would give the gift that keeps on giving: hyperlinks! I don’t know your size or if you have food allergies but I do know you have a web browser with an internet connection. (Not exactly sure how you would be reading this otherwise.) Therefore I would like to share some links to Adobe articles that I have run across that might be of use. Uninstalling and disabling things are truly the kind of thing that brings a smile to the faces of IT admins this time of year.

Silent install/uninstall CS3:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402715.html

Silent install/uninstall CS4:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403994.html

(Why am I giving links to uninstalling CS3 and CS4? You might want to uninstall the older Suites before deploying CS5.)

Disable CS Live internet access from CS5 applications for system administrators:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/846/cpsid_84665.html

Disable internet access from CS5 Community Help Client for system administrators:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/849/cpsid_84992.html

Disabling Adobe Application Manager automatic updates for system administrators:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/850/cpsid_85016.html

Jody Rodgers | Product Manager | Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite

One of the things the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition is missing is well, let’s admit it: marketing. It wouldn’t be five names long now would it if someone in Adobe’s marketing were involved? It would be something spiffy like Adobe Spiffy. We don’t have a cool icon or logo. Not likely to see an AAMEE banner ad anytime soon. We don’t even have t-shirts to promote ourselves. If we did, I guess it would have to be XL to fit the words Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition on it. That is why I have taken it upon myself to start marketing AAMEE and I am starting with this blog title. AAMEE 1.2: Best Release Ever! Clearly hyperbole is what we’ve been missing! Before you know it people will be using AAMEE like a verb like they do Photoshop. “I AAMEE’d that package in like 6 minutes.” Okay, probably not.

Jokes aside the AAMEE crew has been hard at work on this release. And it really is the best release. You know why? 100% of the features came from you. Every new feature with the 1.2 release was based on your feedback. Here’s what you get in 1.2:

• Packages can be deployed from mounted DMGs!
This has been requested since Day 1. Or maybe even sooner, like Hour 1. This is a nice time saver that I am glad we finally got to include.

• AIR components can now be excluded on the Mac.
Certain workflows as well as proxy servers that require manual authentication are just a couple of reasons why an IT admin might need to exclude the AIR components during the CS installation process. We have provided instructions in the new Deployment Guide on how the AIR components can be installed via command line. The biggie being the Community Help application aka CHC. I hope to do a whole blog post on this topic in the new year. There’s something to look forward to. 2011 is looking up already.

• Updates are installed directly from ZIP and DMG files.
This is a pretty great new feature. You no longer have to mount your update files. You just select the ZIP (Windows) or DMG (Mac) files directly. You can even open up a folder of downloaded updates, select all via your keyboard and important them all into AAMEE at once. Nice!

But wait, there’s more. If you download AAMEE today we’ll also throw in two other five word name IT tools for free. Yep, the companion tools to AAMEE, Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition (APTEE) and Adobe Update Server Setup Tool (AUSST) are now included in the install of AAMEE 1.2. Their locations of the installed apps are listed in the Read Me.

So don’t walk, run to the Creative Suite Enterprise Deployment site where you can get AAMEE 1.2, new Read Me and a brand new updated Deployment Guide all for the low, low cost of… free:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

One last marketing ploy: Wouldn’t AAMEE 1.2 make a great holiday gift?

Jody Rodgers | Product Manager| Enterprise & Volume | Creative Suite