MSI deployment for the viewer?

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:45 am

After a quick read of the forums it seems you guys are well aware of the MSI format, but haven't been able to get it to work reliably (largely due to problems installing the PDF print drivers it seems).

However, this post seems to imply that there is an MSI available for the viewer:
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... msi+viewer

Is this correct? Is there an MSI package available that we could use to deploy the PDF-XChange Viewer? We're seriously looking at using this to replace Adobe Acrobat across all our machines, and an MSI installation would be the final nail in the coffin for Acrobat.

Ross

PS. I notice that your viewer also supports JavaScript actions. Is there any way we can disable this in such a way that users *cannot* re-enable it?

Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:48 am

MSI package for the viewer will be available in about 10 days, but please note, it will be separate MSI for x86 and x64 systems.

No, there are no way to disable any function without re-enabling.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:37 pm

That sounds great, sounds like Adobe will be out of the window shortly.

Do you need any beta testers for this? I'll happily roll the MSI out among our IT staff if you want a hand with testing. We've got a pretty good environment for testing software here - roaming user profiles for everybody, locked down workstations, and we make a lot of use of folder redirection (users desktop, my documents and application data folders are all stored on central servers).

Could I make a feature request for later versions to have a way to disable the options menu, or at least some elements of it.

thanks

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:50 pm

Is there any news on this MSI version yet?

Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:43 pm

Almost finished. Browsers plugins (especially mozilla based) is the most problem for now.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:00 pm

Heh, I disable those anyway. Our users get confused when they go to file -> print and get a blank page. Many of them struggle to make the distinction between a web page, and a PDF embedded in a web page.

Much easier to disable browser integration, and have PDF's open up in a proper viewer.

Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:40 pm

In a hour or so, will be ready to give you an URL for downloading 'beta' MSI installer of the viewer.

Post by **John - Tracker Supp** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:41 pm

Hi,

This is now ready as a beta product for testing - please note any eixtsing installation must be removed prior to use.

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PXCViewer_x86.msi

Please do advise us how it goes !

Many thanks

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:20 am

Thanks for that.

Well, it works fine if I just double-click the MSI to install it. Deploying it via group policy is a different story though I'm afraid.

While I don't get any errors, the installation is definitely not working right. I get no entries in the start menu, it's not associated with PDF files, and the icon in add/remove programs just has the standard msi icon rather than the PDF-XChange one.

In the past I've seen issues with MSI files where the ALLUSERS property was not set - this is generally required when you deploy via group policy as the software is installed as the computer boots up, before anybody logs on.

Also, is there any way to customise the MSI file when I deploy it to our workstations. Since there is no installation screen when deploying via group policy, I need to specify in advance settings like no desktop shortcut, no browser integration, no update service. Generally, these settings can be provided by a MST (transform) file, applying the appropriate changes to the MSI, but I don't know whether you will have looked into that.

Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:39 am

Property ALLUSERS is defined, and has value 1. Can you provide me any MSI which is deployed with no problems?
And, can you check to deploy with logging (/l*vx! logfilename.log key).

About customizing: I will provide information about properties used, and you will be able to pass them. Maybe MST is better, can I cannot imagine how I can provide mst for each possible combination.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:18 am

Deploying with logging isn't really possible I'm afraid. There's no way to pass parameters to an MSI file when you deploy via group policy. Most people who aren't network admins will never have come across this, so here are a few guides that show you how it's done, it really is just a case of picking the MSI file, there's not a lot of other customisation you can do:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/index. ... up-policy/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816102
http://www.mapilab.com/support/articles ... group.html

I was going to attach the MSI we use to deploy Acrobat 8, but at 37MB, it was probably a bit large, so I cancelled that, and attached a much smaller example instead. Drop me an email if you'd like a look at the acrobat MSI file though since we do have a few transforms that we use for Acrobat 8 which might be helpful.

Regarding transforms, generally speaking, we will create those ourselves once we know the parameters to pass. That normally done with Orca which is a free download from Microsoft. Here's a write up Citrix have made about creating MST files with Orca:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX105542

If we get this working, I'd be more than happy to share all my notes on how to create the group policy object, use Orca to create the transforms, etc. I've done this in the past with Autodesk, since their MSI required a product key parameter before it could be deployed, and they've now documented the process on their blogs:
http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/2 ... esi-2.html

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:23 am

I think possibly the main thing is being able to do a silent install of the MSI. Are any of the questions you have during the setup process required? I wonder if that could be what's causing the problems?

Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:36 am

Thanks for links and the file. Much appreciated!

Will take a read right now.

I think possibly the main thing is being able to do a silent install of the MSI. Are any of the questions you have during the setup process required? I wonder if that could be what's causing the problems?

I had try to install using /qn key, all goes well

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:59 am

Hmm.. yeah, the silent install seems fine here too.

Does the install process assume anywhere that a user is logged on? That's the other major difference with installs done this way, and I don't know if there's any easy way to test that I'm afraid.

Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:02 pm

Maybe enabling of MSI logging via the registry on one of your computer can help? How to do this check here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223300

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:35 pm

Well, I've got good news and bad news: The bad news is that setting the logging in the registry to /l*vx! didn't seem to work, I got no logs.

The good news is that the install went fine on this machine...

Now I've got the problem of trying to work out what went wrong before lol. I had manually installed PDF-XChange on the other test computer before, and had just uninstalled it before trying the group policy install. This was an install on a clean computer, and went through absolutely fine. It's installed the desktop shortcut, it's registered itself with PDF files, all looks good

I'll test it on some live machines today, we've got a couple of users who are technical enough to cope with a beta, and will let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, it would be great if you could let me know if there are any properties or installation flags that I can pass that will let me turn off things like the browser plug ins, desktop shortcuts, etc.

thanks

Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:52 pm

you can use the following properties for now:
some for registration information
KEY - registration key
ORGANIZATION -company name
USERMAIL - user email

for make as a default program for PDF files
ASSOC - if it has value "1", the viewer will be default for PDF files
SHOWINBROWSERS - if it is specified and has value "1", the viewer will register plugins to show PDFs inside browsers

Next two, I'm not sure you will be able to use - they are not upper-case for now: CreateProgrammGroup, and CreateDesktopIcon.

Name of features you can see via Orca, and change their Level.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:34 pm

Looks good to me, 30 seconds with Orca and I've got a transform that successfully removes the desktop icon, disables the browser integration, and can be deployed via group policy

I don't suppose there's any way I can disable the update check is there? Our users have pretty restricted Internet access, and also don't have permission to update anything in the program files folder, so automatic updaters generally don't play too nicely here.

Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:45 pm

You can set Level for the feature "LiveUpdateFeature" to 0.
Without this feature the Viewer will not check for updates.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:56 pm

Is that another property I set in the MSI?

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:03 pm

Nevermind, I found it. Haven't had to delve much beyond the 'property' settings of an MSI before

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:10 pm

Superb, many thanks

I've now got an automatic deployment of PDF-XChange Viewer with:
- No desktop icon
- No Automatic updates
- Browser integration disabled

In addition, I've got a custom group policy setting that:
- Disables Javascript
- Hides Pro features

I've attached the .MST and .ADM file used to achieve this, and if you want some screenshots to create some documentation for how to configure and deploy this viewer I'll be more than happy to help.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:12 pm

PS. Could I ask for a couple of features for you to consider for future versions. I don't know how many of your users would use these, so I understand if they're not something you could add.

1. Support Group Policy settings
As far as I know, this just means looking for registry settings that would be stored under:
HKLM\Software\Policies\Tracker Software
Any time settings are found here, they should override any local settings.
There is no way to set these keys from within the program.
Ideally the user should find that the relevant items under preferences are greyed out.

2. Provide a Group Policy template file for configuring PDF-XChange
This is a .adm file which I'm happy to provide samples for. A very crude example of which was attached to my last post.
Right now it's possible to create a basic file that will set standard registry values, but these only apply once, they're not enforced. These 'non managed' settings are also hidden by default within the group policy editor.

Items that I would love to configure through policies would be:
- Disabling Javascript
- Disabling the showing of Pro features
- Disabling any Auto Update

thanks

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:19 pm

PPS. Wish me luck, I just rolled this out to 100+ desktops

I figured that my tests last week seemed pretty smooth, and with it being a MSI installer, I'm 99% sure that we could remove it automatically without any problems if we need to.

Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:39 pm

Will try to realize support of Group Policy, but it is almost impossible to support all features via GP/ADM, so, the set of options will be limited.

PPS. Wish me luck, I just rolled this out to 100+ desktops.

Good luck, and let me know the result

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:31 pm

Oh yeah, there's no need to have everything configurable via group policy. It'd just be nice to lock down the occasional feature. Things like Javascript support affect the security of the network, so I really don't want users being able to turn that back on.

No huge rush though, just moving away from Acrobat 8 is a big step forwards security wise

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:27 pm

A couple of other suggestions that you might find helpful.

Our users are finding the printing a bit non-intuitive. Mainly because of the default settings. We've now changed this with some group policy settings, but could I suggest turning on all the following by default:

When printing:
- Fit PDF to paper size
- Auto rotate
- Auto center

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:42 pm

Oh, and while researching the .adm files I've been writing to set these preferences, I've found a couple of Microsoft articles that you might find helpful if you do decide to add group policy support later on. One is their recommendations on how to implement group policy within an application, and the other is the guidance for writing .adm files:

Implementing Registry based policy
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx

Writing .ADM files
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:04 pm

And here's a much more neatly formatted .adm template, showing how to set multiple registry keys from one policy, and now incorporating:

- Enable or Disable Javascript support
- Hide Pro features
- Print settings:
- Scale document to fit page
- Auto Center
- Auto Rotate

Post by **John - Tracker Supp** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:00 am

Many thanks 'myxiplx' - very helpful

cheers

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:58 am

Well, you asked me to let you know how the rollout went - incredibly well is the reply!

You guys have the honour of being the first software company to ever have users phoning me up to say how much better and faster the new program is. In thirteen years of working in IT, I don't think I've ever seen this kind of response to a product.

We have had a few teething problems, but they were all with specific PDF files in the first couple of days, and I've not heard a single complaint since then.

I've raised all the issues with docu-track already, but the short list of problems we've found is:

doesn't handle 3D
fair enough really, we can wait for this
slow with some (complex) drawings
it's faster than Acrobat though, and docu-track have ideas to fix this already!
some illegible printouts
This was just for one specific PDF, and printing in image mode is a valid workaround.
looses text formatting when editing PDF's created in Nitro
Hopefully this will be fixed in a later version, but Acrobat couldn't even edit PDF's, so I'm not going to complain about this .
No Undo function, and Copy/Paste function not working
I understand that all of these are in active development - and I guess this is what you get for rolling out a beta

So in Summary:

We rolled out a beta version of PDF XChange
Within a few hours users were commenting on how good it was
We had no major problems during the rollout
And have had zero complaints in the last 10 days
It's noticably faster than Adobe Acrobat
The MSI rolls out really easily
It's not likely to be as vulnerable to the usual PDF viruses

There's no way we're going back to Adobe now. PDF XChange is going to be our default viewer for the foreseeable future, and we'll definitely be looking at docu-track's other products for generating PDF's too.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:49 pm

Hey guys,

Is there any updated MSI available for version 2.0.x?

Post by **John - Tracker Supp** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:30 pm

Hi,

The last published update was on August 14th - hope that helps

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/downloads/users/

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:42 am

Aaah, thanks, I hadn't found that page.

I'd gone via the 'Free viewer' link at the top of your site, clicking download there just gave me a zip file, and clicking more took me to this page:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/home/pr ... fx_viewer/

Which then has a download link to the same single file:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/home/pr ... ]=download

I still can't see any links from the PDF XChange viewer page to that MSI download page.

Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:34 am

The link you gave :

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/home/prod_use ... fx_viewer/

has this text about 1 3rd down the page :"

"So, why not speed up and improve your PDF Viewing experience by downloading the free PDF-XChange Viewer now!

Leads here :

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/downloads/users/

and in the first table are all the viewer download options : - the last 2 downloads are both MSI installers - one 32 and one 64 bit ...

HTH

Post by **Paul - PDF-XChange** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:49 pm

Hi myxiplx

I would like to pass your kind words on to other potential users in the form of a "review" on our new website (not yet available for viewing but soon... ).

Would you be amenable to this and if so would you be OK having your name associated with it? An anonymous review is to my mind of somewhat questionable value.
I would be happy to let you see the new page prior to the site going live so you could be sure of how it is presented.

sincerely

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:55 am

Sure, I'll be rolling out v2 across our organisation shortly, and will be happy to let you know my thoughts on that too. Version 2 is likely to be replacing both Adobe Acrobat and Nitro PDF Professional.

myxiplx · Post by **myxiplx** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:57 am

Oh, and PS. That beta version has been running within our company for 6 months, with no complaints from our users. It's actually been more stable than either Adobe Acrobat or Nitro.

Acrobat regularly hangs, leaving an AcroRd32.exe process running, and blocking other PDF views. Nitro crashes all over the place - our users have just gotten used to saving regularly if they're using it.

Post by **John - Tracker Supp** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:12 am

Many thanks myxiplx !

Much appreciated !

adbare · Post by **adbare** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:52 pm

myxiplx wrote:Superb, many thanks

I've now got an automatic deployment of PDF-XChange Viewer with:
- No desktop icon
- No Automatic updates
- Browser integration disabled

In addition, I've got a custom group policy setting that:
- Disables Javascript
- Hides Pro features

I've attached the .MST and .ADM file used to achieve this, and if you want some screenshots to create some documentation for how to configure and deploy this viewer I'll be more than happy to help.

Thank you for the great adm files and other info. I am getting ready to roll it out onto about 40 machines but I am not having much luck removing the desktop icon. Where in orca were you able to turn it off? I have set to 0 for the desktop icon under checkbox table, and under the registry table but it still shows up.

Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:19 am

Hello adbare,

Not an experienced Orca user here, but in the Property table there is a "_CreateDesktopShortCuts" with a default value of 1.
I think this is the one you need.

Regards,
Stefan

freesbee98 · Post by **freesbee98** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:14 pm

is the ASSOC="0" property really working?
I tried (209/210/211) both ASSOC=0 and ASSOC="0" but the viewer turns always out to be the default application for PDF. All the rest works properly. My install command is:

Code: Select all

%ComSpec% /c msiexec.exe /i "PXCViewer_%osArch%.msi" PATCH="PXCViewer_%osArch%.msp" ASSOC=0 ADDLOCAL="F_Viewer,F_Help_Viewer,F_Langs_Viewer,F_ShellExt" INSTALLLOCATION="%ProgramFiles%\myInstallPath" ORGANIZATION="my organization name" /qn

being executed while starting the machine up.
But the viewer is always default.... would be a pity having to retire it.

Post by **Paul - PDF-XChange** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:54 pm

Hi freesbee98

what build are you using?

freesbee98 · Post by **freesbee98** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:11 pm

I rolled out the 2.5.210 (using the msi installer, mainly x64 but I have the same concept on the x86) a few weeks ago.
I wanted to patch it with the 211.msp, and with the occasion correct the mistake I thought I did that time... so I msiexec /x the previous one making a fresh install of the 211 patched.

Unfortunately it seems to me that the only property ASSOC=0 or ASSOC="0" is the one being not working.

Our environment is a little bit peculiar, and I won't get to lunch alive if I override again all people preferences for the benefit of a restricted group who prefer to work with pdfXChange...
...so for now I blocked the patch and I will stay on the 210 till some news come.
Of course I'm ready to supply all necessary info to help understanding the problem.

Post by **Paul - PDF-XChange** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 5:05 pm

Thanks freesbee98,

can you tell me the OS version I should test this on? One that you are sure has the issue and I'll see if I can reproduce it here.

freesbee98 · Post by **freesbee98** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:53 pm

I'm having the issue with all machines, that means Win7 x64 Pro and Enterprise SP1 [6.1.7601].
If you want I can test it on WinXP, even if I don't see much sense.
If you tell me how to log a verbose installation I will send you the log file
Thanks

Post by **Paul - PDF-XChange** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 10:00 pm

If you tell me how to log a verbose installation I will send you the log file

perfect. Use:

Code: Select all

msiexec.exe /i "PXCViewer_%osArch%.msi" PATCH="PXCViewer_%osArch%.msp" ASSOC=0 ADDLOCAL="F_Viewer,F_Help_Viewer,F_Langs_Viewer,F_ShellExt" INSTALLLOCATION="%ProgramFiles%\myInstallPath" ORGANIZATION="my organization name" /qn /lv!*x c:\PDFXCPro_x64.msi.log

Post the log in a zip archive or the forum software will prevent the upload.

Thanks.

freesbee98 · Post by **freesbee98** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:05 am

pdfXCh_vwr_LOGs.zip

...very strange: installation with 211.msp patch is now failing.
I tried with /qn switch, and then it fails. Without /qn switch I get the error message:

Code: Select all

Error applying patch to file C:\Config.Msi\PT502A.tmp.
It has probably been updated by other means, and can
no longer be modified by this patch. For more
information contact your patch vendor.

I previously uninstalled the 210 so the system (should) be clean.
In all cases (also if I install without the 211 patch) the

Code: Select all

"Set PDF-XChange Viewer a default application for PDF files"

is enabled by default. And that's exactly the flag I'd like to be able to remove...

Here attached the 3 verbose log files:
1. silent with 211 failing
2. interactive with 211 failing
3. interactive 210 (succesfull, but ASSOC=0 dos not disable the flag)

Post by **Paul - PDF-XChange** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:24 pm

Hi freesbee98,

well this is a little embarrassing. I was just informed that ASSOC is deprecated, you need to use SET_VIEWER_AS_DEFAULT

This is the latest set of MSI switches - literally just updated today by the MSI developer. Let me know how that goes please.

freesbee98 · Post by **freesbee98** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 4:02 pm

...I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have already tried it

(I opened the msi with ORCA and I noticed that the name was different).

I will anyway do some more accurate test over the weekend and let you know.