Packaging Adobe Reader for Ease of Installation

Written by Daniel Mundy

Thursday, 11 December 2008 16:42

All Adobe versions can be downloaded by FTP, bypassing the download manager on the Adobe homepage.

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win - find whatever version you want!
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.3/enu/ - different files for Reader 9.1
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.3/enu/AdbeRdr930_en_US.exe - The version without AIR, etc

Adobe Reader 9.x

Customisation Wizard: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3993

See below for more instructions:

Adobe Reader 8.x

Source: Appdeploy.com: Acrobat Reader 8.x

Download the full Acrobat Reader 8 package, start the install and wait for it to get to the first screen. Then copy the Adobe Reader 8.0 folder from the Local Settings\Temp folder in your profile, and exit the install.
Adobe provides a tool, Adobe Customisation Wizard, which lets you create a transform file.
After you create a transform, launch it like this:
msiexec /passive /i "AcroRead.msi" TRANSFORMS="AcroRead.mst"

Adobe Reader 7.x

You can download the redistributable Adobe Reader package here.
The .exe file will save a .msi file to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Setup Files\RdrBig\ENU

Appdeploy.com: Packaging Adobe Reader 7.x led me to this article that gives instructions provides a transform file.

This transform file modifies the installation process, accepts the EULA, prevents creation of the desktop shortcut and FastLoad startup link, prevents the splash-screen, web-search toolbar and Acrobat 7 advert from being displayed, and removes the following plugins:

Digital Signatures
Legal PDF
Accessibility
PPK Light
Save As RTF
Web Search
Updater

To run it from a cmd, type:

msiexec.exe /i "Adobe Reader 7.0.msi" TRANSFORMS="acrobat7.mst"
To change the default installation path from \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0, add INSTALLDIR="Install_directory" to the command line.
- To fully automate the installation and perform a silent install, add /qb- to the end of the command line.