Adobe Acrobat Professional

[Glen]

If anybody would be able to let me know how to do the following, it would be much appreciated.

Basically, what we want is to stop Adobe Acrobat Professional being so intrusive - "taking over" the whole system. We would like the install to be as small as possible (removing unnecessary components) and leave out all the context menu entries, leave out the toolbars in Microsoft Office, don't run any processes at startup and so on.

I've started to try a few things myself, but I quickly realised I was out of my depth. I'm not very experienced with Acrobat Professional so I don't even know what each component does and I'm still not confident with modifying .msi files (I've changed a few things for Photoshop CS2, Maya and so on, but they were easier than this).

So, could somebody please guide me through all the changes, it would be a great help.

Thanks.

[tempuser]

you can use installshield to remove those components that you dont want.

remember to first slipstream Adobe Acrobat 7.07 before you edit the msi with installshield.

all those components can be removed using Installshield 11.5.

You can download a trial version

google for it.

good luck to you.

[Glen]

Thanks.

I downloaded InstallShield 11.5 - I was previously using Orca (Microsoft's MSI Editor, pretty much the same as the Direct Editor here) so it's much easier to work with having the clearer layout and whatever.

Anyway, I can slipstream Acrobat 7.07 quite easily, but I'm still stuck with removing the context menus, Office toolbars and startup processes. If anyone could point me in the right direction for each of these it would be great.

[blinkdt]

A worthy project indeed, Glen. It bugs me no end the way Acrobat attaches itself to so many other programs and screws up their interfaces with those nasty toolbars. A simple "Print to PDF" from the menu would more than suffice for what I need to accomplish.

[Glen]

It bugs me no end the way Acrobat attaches itself to so many other programs and screws up their interfaces with those nasty toolbars. A simple "Print to PDF" from the menu would more than suffice for what I need to accomplish.

Well said.

I've used Adobe Reader for years and never had any complaints, I just removed "Speed Launch" or whatever it installed to the Startup folder and everything was fine. But this is my first experience with Acrobat Professional and it hasn't been good so far. It would be great just to have a printer installed to convert documents to PDF and a single program to view/design them. For whatever reason, they decided they needed context menus and toolbars all over the place and something like 15 executables (no idea what each one does).

Just hope someone has already done the hard yards to get rid of the unnecessary junk, cause otherwise it's going to take a long time sorting through the MSI file figuring out what's needed and what's not.

[blinkdt]

otherwise it's going to take a long time sorting through the MSI file figuring out what's needed and what's not.

There's the challenge...now, to find the time....

[D8TA]

you can use installshield to remove those components that you dont want.

remember to first slipstream Adobe Acrobat 7.07 before you edit the msi with installshield.

all those components can be removed using Installshield 11.5.

You can download a trial version

google for it.

good luck to you.

I am having difficult time getting 7.0.7 slipstreamed in Acrobat standard and pro. I have tried for two days now but once I get it slipstreamed and try to install I get errors saying that certain files are missing. One of the big ones that has appeared was AcroIF.dll. Could someone explain how they did this successfully? I have version 7 CDs and I need to patch to 0.5 then I can patch to 0.7. I really need to get both of these versions, standard and pro up to the 7.0.7 and just about ready to rip all my hair left. Please help!! I need to slipstream both patches so I have an msi install for Acrobat Standard and Pro 7.0.7. I was able to update the Reader without any problems.

Thanks!

[blinkdt]

@D8TA This thread is about customizing an Acrobat install, not installing/patching. Another comprehensive thread exists on that topic.

@Glen I recognize that there are those who require the mighty functionality that only Adobe Acrobat offers, but I ain't one of 'em. I'm going with PrimoPDF and dropping this nightmare.

[Glen]

Oops, forgot about this thread completely.

If anyone is interested, here is my solution - it's not great but it's alright for my needs.

- Modify the Feature table of the MSI to display every option for custom installations.

- Install only the "Requirements" (no subfeatures) and "Create Adobe PDF" (no subfeatures) options.

- Install Adobe Reader, instructions for which you can find in other threads.

This just means you have the Adobe PDF Printer to use from any application and Adobe Reader to open and view the files. For me, it took the installation down to under 90 megabytes in total and more importantly eliminated the annoying toolbars and context menu extensions.