Deploy Acrobat Reader DC with SCCM

How to deploy Acrobat Reader DC with SCCM using the application model. The installation will be unattended and silent as every good SCCM deployment should be. It also supersedes old versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader to make sure they get uninstalled before we install the new version.

Step 1 – Download Acrobat Reader DC

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1. Donwload an offline installer of Acrobat Reader DC from Adobe: https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/
2. Use 7-zip to extract the downloaded file so you get the actual installation files.

Step 2 – Create Application in SCCM

• Install string: Setup.exe /sALL /rs /msi EULA_ACCEPT=YES
• Uninstall string: msiexec /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100}

Detection method

Use windows installer as detection method and read the product code and MSI version from AcroRead.msi. It is important to set the MSI version as detection method and not just the product code. If not you can’t separate the different versions and you will have problems superseding old versions of Acrobat Reader.

Step 3 – Supersed old version of Acrobat Reader

When you supersede a previous version of Acrobat Reader, the superseded version will be uninstalled before the new version in installed. Uninstall of the old version of Adobe reader will only happen when the device or user is hit with the deployment of the application superseding the old one. Making an application superseded does not mean that it will be uninstalled, it needs a deployment of the actual application superseding it before it is uninstalled.

On your application (not deployment type), chose properties and supersedence. Add the different Adobe Reader versions you want this to supersede. Make sure you chose your new deployment type, which is the deployment type of the new Acrobat Reader DC that you just created. Also select “Uninstall” to make sure it uninstalls the superseded version.

That’s it, your new version of Acrobat Reader DC will now perform a clean uninstall of any old version that you superseded.

Step 4 – Deploy Acrobat Reader DC with SCCM

Deploy Acrobat Reader DC to any collection where you want to upgrade to this specified version. Again, no superseded version will be uninstalled on any computer unless you deploy the new package to them.

Important: The superseded versions need to have a working uninstall string, or uninstall of previous versions will fail. This is why you always test both install and uninstall when you create a new application in configuration manager.