Acrobat Reader DC detected as Acrobat DC

mag00_75 asked a question.

March 17, 2022 at 9:03 AM

Hi All

We stumbled on the issue that our "Adobe Acrobat DC (2021) Continuous" license consumption has increased quite rapidly and started to investigate.

I found this article that gave me some clue. https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader-discussions/adobe-acrobat-reader-dc-x64-msi-installer/m-p/12576339

With that I downloaded and installed AcroRdrDCx642200120085_MUI.msi

When starting the application is presented as "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (64-bit), however in Add/Remove programs it shows up as "Adobe Acrobat DC (64-bit)" which then triggers the licenses.

Now I'm thinking is it a ARL update that are required or actually a bug/feature in the AcrobatReader installation package? Whats your thoughts if you stumbled onto the same issue?

FlexNet Manager Suite On-Premises

Top Rated Answers

nrousseau1
4 years ago
An update on this one, the September 16th release brings a new capability for the Flexera agent to recognize the activated edition (for all users who have logged in the last 90 days on a computer) of Acrobat by reading the "ActivationLevel" registry entry.
Make sure that your inventory settings let the "InventorySettings.xml" to automatically take the latest version (66) and you will take advantage of this new data collection. More information on: https://docs.flexera.com/fnms/EN/features/index.htmlFeatureList/2022R1-6/RN-chg-AgentAdobeExtension.html
Best regards,
Nicolas Rousseau
Senior Product Manager
Flexera - ITAM
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All Answers

mag00_75
4 years ago
Done some more research and it seams that a registry value needs to be read to set the correct product to reader. It might be possible to have a workaround in the agent to add the registry key and evidences, but will go for a ticket to the content team.
https://helpx.adobe.com/sea/acrobat/kb/about-acrobat-reader-dc-migration-to-64-bit.html

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\Installer\, and check the value of the key SCAPackageLevel.
If the value of SCAPackageLevel is 1, the installed application is Acrobat Reader DC.
If the value of SCAPackageLevel is greater than 1, the installed application is Acrobat DC.
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0_Captain Kirk (Flexera Software)
4 years ago
Thank you Adobe for making something that should be extremely simple and easy into something that is overly complicated and confusing for your customers.
I do know of a company that sells Packaging Technologies to software publishers to make things simple and easy for your customers.
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nrousseau1
4 years ago
Hello @mag00_75
Thanks for your question and comments.
Indeed, having Acrobat Reader and writer sharing the same add / remove is just a pain.
Our plan is to stop using the ambiguous add/remove program evidence from Acrobat DC, add it to Acrobat Reader, and enhance the WMI evidences we use for Acrobat DC (Created from the SWIDTags that have not been systematically managed in the last versions), with the patterns below.
I would prefer we use the existing WMI evidences collected from the SWIDTags than change the agent to collect a new registry entry (by the way, thanks for your investigation, I had found the IsAcrInstalledInRdrMode in the same node but the key you provide looks good!).
Do you see the WMI patterns I show below. The first test look encouraging on our side.
2020 Classic pro
WMI classProperty nameProperty valueAdded evidenceFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Serial_Number9707%NoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Activation_StatusactivatedNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_TitleAdobe AcrobatNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_Version20.%.30%No

2020 Continuous pro
WMI classProperty nameProperty valueAdded evidenceFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Serial_Number9707%NoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Activation_StatusactivatedNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_TitleAdobe AcrobatNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_Version20.%.20%No
like 1
2021 Classic pro
WMI classProperty nameProperty valueAdded evidenceFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Serial_Number9707%NoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Activation_StatusactivatedNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_TitleAdobe AcrobatNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_Version21.%.30%No

2021 Continuous pro
WMI classProperty nameProperty valueAdded evidenceFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Serial_Number9707%NoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Activation_StatusactivatedNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_TitleAdobe AcrobatNoFLX_AdobeSWIDTAG_Product_Version21.%.20%No

Thanks,
Nicolas
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- mag00_75
  4 years ago
  @nrousseau1 It seams that I do not have any newer Acrobat WMI evidences in the FLX_Adobe class. Could that relate to this issue since we are running the onpremise 2021r1?
  
  Known Issue: Adobe Acrobat 2020 edition does not get recognized based on inventory gathered by the F... - Community (flexera.com)
  Appendix A: Identifying Installs — Deployment Planning and Configuration (adobe.com) mentions that the 64-bit unified installation package do not have SWID and I cant find any adobe swidtag on my test computer which only have Acrobat Reader installed.
  For the licensed Acrobat versions we are using the FRL-Offline packages (and FRL-LAN before that), which by them self also have challenges in managing evidences.
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  - nrousseau1
    4 years ago
    Hello @mag00_75 , The agent collects WMI evidences, even if there are not mapped to applications by the ARL.
    You can run the query below (you can uncomment to get only the computers where 2021 Continuous Pro exists but performance is poor) and hopefully will see many records. Can you confirm this? I can verify this with other customers.
    You are right Acrobat reader as a common add / remove program evidence, but no WMI. So, you could theoretically ignore the add / remove evidence and add the WMI... The issue is that you can't make WMI evidences clever (for instance 21.%.20%), unless inserting them in the database.
    SELECT ic.ComputerName, iwm.*, ic.ComplianceComputerID, ic.ExternalID FROM ImportedComputer ic WITH (NOLOCK)
    
    LEFT JOIN ImportedInstalledWMIEvidence iiwm WITH (NOLOCK) on iiwm.ExternalComputerID = ic.ExternalID
    
    AND iiwm.ComplianceConnectionID = ic.ComplianceConnectionID
    
    INNER JOIN ImportedWMIEvidence iwm WITH (NOLOCK) on iwm.ExternalEvidenceID = iiwm.ExternalEvidenceID
    
    AND iwm.ComplianceConnectionID = iiwm.ComplianceConnectionID
    
    AND iwm.ClassName = 'FLX_Adobe'
    
    --WHERE
    
    --EXISTS (SELECT * from importedInstalledWMIEvidence iiw
    
    -- LEFT JOIN ImportedWMIEvidence iw on iw.ExternalEvidenceID = iiw.ExternalEvidenceID
    
    -- WHERE iw.ClassName = 'FLX_Adobe'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyValue LIKE '21.%20%'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyName = 'SWIDTAG_Product_Version'
    
    -- AND ic.ExternalID = iiw.ExternalComputerID AND ic.ComplianceConnectionID = iiw.ComplianceConnectionID)
    
    --AND
    
    --EXISTS (SELECT * from importedInstalledWMIEvidence iiw
    
    -- LEFT JOIN ImportedWMIEvidence iw on iw.ExternalEvidenceID = iiw.ExternalEvidenceID
    
    -- WHERE iw.ClassName = 'FLX_Adobe'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyValue = 'Adobe Acrobat'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyName = 'SWIDTAG_Product_Title'
    
    -- AND ic.ExternalID = iiw.ExternalComputerID AND ic.ComplianceConnectionID = iiw.ComplianceConnectionID)
    --AND EXISTS (SELECT * from importedInstalledWMIEvidence iiw
    
    -- LEFT JOIN ImportedWMIEvidence iw on iw.ExternalEvidenceID = iiw.ExternalEvidenceID
    
    -- WHERE iw.ClassName = 'FLX_Adobe'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyValue = 'Activated'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyName = 'SWIDTAG_Activation_Status'
    
    -- AND ic.ExternalID = iiw.ExternalComputerID AND ic.ComplianceConnectionID = iiw.ComplianceConnectionID)
    
    --AND EXISTS (SELECT * from importedInstalledWMIEvidence iiw
    
    -- LEFT JOIN ImportedWMIEvidence iw on iw.ExternalEvidenceID = iiw.ExternalEvidenceID
    
    -- WHERE iw.ClassName = 'FLX_Adobe'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyValue LIKE '97%'
    
    -- AND iw.PropertyName = 'SWIDTAG_Serial_Number'
    
    -- AND ic.ExternalID = iiw.ExternalComputerID AND ic.ComplianceConnectionID = iiw.ComplianceConnectionID)
    
    ORDER BY ic.ComplianceComputerID
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    mag00_75
    4 years ago
    @nrousseau1 Hi
    We have a few sites which has the Adobe Cloud products and can see very few results and I can also see a lot of leftovers from earlier versions. For our major sites we run FRL-Offline 64 bit package and they do not show up in the query with/without the uncomment rows.
    Expand Post
- JenMaier
  4 years ago
  Hello Nicolas! Based on your comment Our plan is to stop using the ambiguous add/remove program evidence from Acrobat DC, add it to Acrobat Reader, and enhance the WMI evidences we use for Acrobat DC (Created from the SWIDTags that have not been systematically managed in the last versions), with the patterns below. When do you think you'll be getting something in place?
  Expand Post
  - nrousseau1
    4 years ago
    Hello @JenMaier , please check also on your side. We are looking for confirmation that data is here and consistent to extend the ARL (and remove the link to the add remove program)... your help will be useful confirming this. Then, this is a matter of a week to wait for the next ARL build. Thanks for sharing your observations.
    Nicolas
    Expand Post
JenMaier
4 years ago
Yes we are experiencing the same thing.
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nrousseau1
4 years ago
Hello everyone,
Friday's ARL will unlink Acrobat DC installer evidence from Acrobat DC 2021... and link to Acrobat Reader. WMI evidences will be added to Acrobat DC 2020 and 2021.
This means:
When no FNMS agent is used (typically SCCM for desktops, which is a very reasonable choice), Acrobat DC 2021 will no longer be recognized (and was anyway not recognized correctly)
When Acrobat DC will be installed, Acrobat reader may also be rcognized... we are considering the use of precedence rules to "hide" Acrobat Reader.
The fact older versons appear, related to swidtag files that stay after upgrade (unless the WMI evidences are here even when applications have been installed) should not be a big issue as consomption will not be augmented...
@mag00_75 , could you please share by email nrousseau@flexera.com the extracts of a computer deployed with FRL-Offline 64 for installer, file and WMI evidences tabs. We need to find and accurate evidence...
Thanks,

Nicolas
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