How to permanently disabled self repair?

[Dan_Peterka@adobeforums.com]

We have 20 Acrobat licenses installed on a mix of Macs, both PPC and Intel, desktops and laptops, running 10.4.6 to 10.4.8. Users are network accounts and do not have administrator access.

We have had much grief with the PDFViewer browser plugin and have removed it. We also find the PDFMaker toolbars for MS Office to be annoying and have removed them. [Please make these be optional at install time!]

Problem is, I cannot (as an administrator), reliably trigger a self repair that presents the "Don't ask me again" check box that ONLY appears when Acrobat decides to do it's own repair for PDFViewer, PDFMaker, and the PDF Printer. At some point, the self repair is triggered by our users and they have to call me for the admin access needed to get past the Detect and Repair screen.

Obviously, D&R will require admin privs to repair, but why are admin privs required to NOT repair?

I need a reliable way to disable self repair at installation time such that it will never be triggered again for any network or local user account on that computer.

[pgary@adobeforums.com]

<We have had much grief with the PDFViewer browser plugin and have removed it.>

Dan;

Have you tried the Schubert-It plug-in: <http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/webdev/> . It definitely works better than Adobe's offering. I instruct new clients using Acrobat and Distiller to remove the PDFMaker macro and simply use the print to PDF function instead. It's actually faster and gives better results than the macro. For some reason the macro seems to be stuck on the Smallest File Size joboption.

[sws@adobeforums.com]

The PDFMaker macro uses what is currently set in the Distiller.

[pgary@adobeforums.com]

I was referring to the toolbar icon provided in MS apps. I am aware that it uses Distiller, but if one selects the Print function from the MS menu instead of the toolbar button, they have access to all JobOptions. That process is more efficient and with more predictable results than letting the Toolbar icon do its print and open Acrobat for view routine.

[Dan_Peterka@adobeforums.com]

We are content to use the default Preview functionality in Safari instead of PDFViewer. We are content to use the default Save as PDF capability with Mac OSX instead of the PDFMaker and PDF Printer features.

PDFViewer has caused problems such as displaying a blank browser window (Doing a Save As of the blank window results in a viewable PDF file however). PDFMaker is simply annoying in that it creates an extra toolbar line in Office and our users never use it. If it added itself to an existing toolbar, we wouldn't care if it were there or not.

We use Acrobat Pro in very simple ways to merge and re-combine PDF files and to do some collaboration/markup. No fancy workflows, no forms, no digital signatures, etc.. Just enough that Acrobat Standard doesn't fit the requirements, but nowhere near what Pro is capable of.

[Jon Bessant]

On the safari integration front - you might be happier with the
offerings within Acrobat 8 Professional on the Mac. Although no trial
version available I would urge you to upgrade one copy and test - I've
found even under PPC mode, it's much more responsive and works very well.

The MS Office approach on the Mac is weak - I agree, if MS allowed for
hook-ups to enable better integration, Mac users might well fair better
(like their MS counterparts) ...


Jon

[Larry_G._Schneider@adobeforums.com]

Dan,

Check out the following

<http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc272c2/0>

It outlines a way to disable the PDFMaker tool bars.

Larry

[Dan_Peterka@adobeforums.com]

I have already implemented the fixes needed to disable the Office PDFMaker toolbars and to remove the PDFViewer plugin. I've also implemented the LoginHook to enable the Organizer to work with network user accounts.

After way too much research and trial and error, I have come up with the following 9 step installation procedure:

1) Do the initial drag install of 7.0
2) Start Acrobat to complete the initial self configuration process, license it, then quit
3) Apply the 3 patches 7.0 -> 7.0.5 -> 7.0.7 -> 7.0.8 (why isn't there a combo?)
4) Start it again to make sure it self configures, then quit
5) Remove /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PDFViewer.plugin
6) Replace the Office PDFMaker tools (using same named folders trick)
7) Install a LoginHook that removes ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat and inserts a symbolic
link to /Users/Shared/Acrobat (for Organizer to work with network users)
8) Start Acrobat again (nothing happens) and quit
9) Start Acrobat once more and the Self Repair is triggered
a) Uncheck all three repairs (PDFViewer, PDFMaker, and PDF Printer)
b) Check the Don't do this again box
c) Enter the admin credentials as required
then quit.

At this point the install is complete and works as I want it to for network users. However, I am finding that users are getting the self repair dialog popup at some point. As the administrator, I should have disabled the self repair with step 9, but it either does not stick, or it is a user level preference. I have tried firing up Acrobat as a user several times after installation and the self repair dialog does not pop up (implying it is not a user level pref).

When users get the dialog, there is nothing they can do to get past it since they do not have administrator rights. If they elect to repair, they have to authenticate and can't. If they opt to NOT repair, the authentication is still required.

I need a fix that I can add to the procedure above that permanently disables the self repair feature for all network users that may use the computer.

[macwoman@adobeforums.com]

The 'Save as pdf' option in the drop down menu of the Print Dialog box is a part of your Mac OS - not a part of your Acrobat application. Apple has licensed this function from Adobe. It creates files using the 'Mac OS X 10.4.8 Quartz PDFContext' encoder. gee.

In the Print Dialog box select 'Edit Menu' from the pdf drop down Menu and click on the + button.

You can then add Acrobat 8.app to the menu.

* The pdf encoding creation capability is different between Acrobat 8 and 'save as pdf'.*

The Acrobat 8.app option also creates smaller files. Check it out afterwards using the 'get Info' command on the files that you create using both options.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

The "Save as PDF" feature of Mac OS X is NOT(!) licensed from Adobe - that is a common misconception.

we have no problems with it and are happy to have Apple support PDF in this way.

Leonard
Adobe Systems

[pjonesCET@adobeforums.com]

If there is not at least a "Gentleman's agreement between Apple and Adobe. That On OSX the use Acrobat 4 v1.3 format for creating PDF's from the Pint Menu. and ON OSX.4.8 they have only went up Acrobat 5 v1.4 Compatibility. That's what you get when you do a Get Info on a PDF Created through the Print Menu.

Looks like if they could "freely use" what ever version they wanted they would want to upgraded to the latest version out. I do realize that Acrobat 8 will only work with OSX.4.8. So OSX.3.9 could only use Acrobat 7.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

The reason that Apple "tags" their PDFs as 1.4 is that they simply don't use any newer features. If a PDF only uses features from 1.0->1.4, why would you identify it as PDF 1.7?

The second half of this question is "Why doesn't Apple support newer features of PDF?" Well, you'd have to ask them for the official answer. However, my PERSONAL OPINION on the topic is simply..."For the ways that Apple uses PDF in Mac OS X, the newer features aren't interesting to us". Remember that PDF in Mac OS X is JUST ABOUT ePaper - it's not about rich/interactive documents. When Apple moves forward in those directions, I am sure they will up their PDF version. But in the meantime - since PDF is backwards compatible - why is it even an issue?

Leonard

[Dan_Peterka@adobeforums.com]

Interesting discussion, but not helpful.

Does anyone know what piece of Acrobat Pro 7.0.8 (and Acrobat Reader 7.0.8) I can remove, or otherwise disable, that will prevent Acrobat from ever coming up with the screen that looks like the Detect and Repair screen on its own?

When this screen comes up, it cannot be dismissed by a non-administrator user.

[Larry_G._Schneider@adobeforums.com]

Have you tried removing the SelfHeal files from within the Package Contents? Acrobat>Show Package Contents>Contents>MacOS>AcroENUProSelfHeal.xml
A similar one is in Reader.