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Software deployment: Customize Adobe Reader with Adobe Customization Wizard

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When preparing Adobe Reader for enterprise deployment, Adobe Customization Wizard helps customize its settings.

Adobe Customization Wizard is a free download-able utility designed to help IT professionals take greater control of enterprise-wide deployments of Adobe® Acrobat® and Adobe Reader®. With it you can customize the Acrobat installer and application features prior to deployment. Providing a graphical interface to the Windows Installer for Acrobat, the Customization Wizard enables IT administrators to:

  • Modify the installer via a transform file (MST file) without altering the original package (MSI file)
  • Customize the look and feel of Acrobat or Reader before deployment to meet the unique needs of your user base

Features in Adobe Customization Wizard

  • Optimize the behavior of the installer by including silent installation, preserialization, multilingual, and custom setup choices
  • Remove previous versions of Acrobat and Reader
  • Suppress the EULA, registration prompts, and the Getting Started window
  • Customize key application preferences — turn off automatic updates, add and set default job options, and customize collaboration and security settings
  • Remove shortcuts from the desktop and the Start menu
  • Edit each Adobe Acrobat application's registry and installer tables
  • Customize file attachment handling within PDF files, including specifying which file types you want to block
  • Add or edit files that will be installed, including customized JavaScript or plug-ins
  • Preconfigure Acrobat Connect and disable it
  • Preconfigure and lock Enhanced Security settings
  • Deploy custom Portfolio navigators
  • Add or remove custom redaction code sets
  • And much more!

Adobe Customization Wizard

Adobe Customization Wizard

This tool helped me generate an MST file for an automated Adobe Reader installation. Disabling automatic updates and other application prompts is a common administration task. I created a CMD script to deploy the application to my clients using the MSI and MST files.

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