Deploying Adobe Reader with ConfigMgr

So in my opinion Adobe makes it way to difficult to deploy Adobe Reader. The last time that I had to mess with this was months ago so I nearly forgot everything I needed to do to make my new Adobe package.

I started out with the need to deploy Adobe Reader 9.2 to workstations that had versions 9, 9.1, and 9.1.2. I downloaded Adobe Reader 9.2 from Adobe.com and ended up with an executable. Normally you can use a program like WinRAR to extract that contents of the executable, but not with Adobe executable's. Instead you have to use a switch.

You'll have to go to start, run, put in the location of the items, then the executable and tag onto the end of it -nos_ne. ( C:\AdbeRdr92.exe -nos_ne) When the Adobe window pops up you click Next, then when it's done you'll find you source files in the temp directory. Just don't get fooled by the modify dates. The Setup folder will have the current date and time stamp on it, but all the source files inside will have old dates. At that point you can use the Adobe Customization Wizard on the msi and distribute Reader throughout our organization. 

Of course if you don't care to customize the installation you can just use the /sAll switch on the original executable. I choose to customize the installation so that the end user doesn't get prompted for updates or have to agree to the eula the first time it's launched.

Enjoy