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#1 2016-03-11 10:10:00

StephanG

New Adobe Connect Addin poorly programmed

Hi there,

today a colleague of mine tried to install the new addin to be able to host a meeting. This wasn't necessary before and now it needs admin rights to install it. Strike 1

If this isn't bad enough (and a bit like in the nineties), the exe itself is installed into the administrators profile (the one who was capable to install the addin). Strike 2
After the user now tries to open up the meeting he get's an error.
Some investigation later i found the entry in the registry under HKCR that points to the exe in the administrator profile. Hmm how should a normal user be able to read the exe?!?
Strike 3

I don't know how other end users see this. But it seems like developing software isn't the main task of the people who tried to program this plugin.
Also it seems to be old code used because there is "macromedia" all over the place.

Well here is the "solution" from Adobe:
Allow the user to install software. - Yeah right. Why not make them domain admins.

Here is my solution:
1. Do not extend the contract until they fixed it
2. Copy the files from the admin user to a place where the users can access
3. change the reg key to this path

And it works. If most of you don't have the problem. Look at the administrator users exe and yours in your path. Yours is still the old one.

Yours:
%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\adobeconnectaddin

Regards
Stephan

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#2 2016-03-11 11:38:54

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: New Adobe Connect Addin poorly programmed

Stephan,

If the Add-in in installed using the exe it will require admin rights. In most managed environments this will be restricted and require some addtional steps to make it happen. However, if you install it through the Meeting room, admin rights are not required.

Installing through the meeting room may also solve the profile issue, though if you are on a thin client, there are known issues with having the Add-in accessible to all users. If this is the case you may want to modify the links you distribute for your rooms to have /?lightning=true after the room URL. This will allow a silent install of the Add-in as they join the room, if one is not already present.

Hope that helps.

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#3 2016-03-14 03:27:34

StephanG

Re: New Adobe Connect Addin poorly programmed

Hi,

not really. I performed the steps you told me. I entered the meeting room as an organizer  and it redirects me to the adobe addin.
Video here:
http://1drv.ms/1Rgv1x8

I'm now deploying adobe connect via our Software Shop (HEAT DSM) and reconfigure the install destination to Program Files using an INF File with the setup.exe

If other customers facing the same problems i will post it how to do it.

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#4 2016-05-25 08:41:26

JCarter

Re: New Adobe Connect Addin poorly programmed

StephanG wrote:

today a colleague of mine tried to install the new addin to be able to host a meeting. This wasn't necessary before and now it needs admin rights to install it. Strike 1
If this isn't bad enough (and a bit like in the nineties), the exe itself is installed into the administrators profile (the one who was capable to install the addin). Strike 2
Regards
Stephan

That has always been the way it works in our office because our PCs are managed by IT admins... so I cannot install any exe with privileges and of course any install package will install into the admin profile when your logged in as admin. how would it know what profiles are on the PC and which one you really want to install it for?

Also, our IT tries to secure our browsers and ActiveX filtering is turned on. When it is, when users try to join a meeting the will get the message that they need to download and install install the plugin. Look for a small blue circle with a line through it in the the address bar of the browser. click it, and turn off ActiveX filtering and the meeting will open up.

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#5 2017-05-25 14:09:51

cuc1495731597

Re: New Adobe Connect Addin poorly programmed

JCarter wrote:

That has always been the way it works in our office because our PCs are managed by IT admins... so I cannot install any exe with privileges and of course any install package will install into the admin profile when your logged in as admin. how would it know what profiles are on the PC and which one you really want to install it for?

Just to clarify how this works in an IT managed environment... software typically installs to the user account you are logged into. NOT the user account used to authorize the installation via the UAC pop up.

So, if you log in as non-admin user X, and try to install software, UAC will ask you for admin credentials to proceed. You enter those credentials and the software is installed for user-X.

The problem with Adobe Connect is that in that scenario, instead of installing the software for user X, it installs it for the admin account you used to authorize the install via UAC. This is very, VERY unusual and a sign of bad installation programming. I've been managing IT networks for 20 some years and I can't emphasize how out of the ordinary this is.

We have yet to find a reasonable solution to the problem. The only work around we've found is to temporarily give user X admin rights over the machine, install the software, then remove those rights. This is not a real solution, but a clunky work around. If anyone else has ideas on how to handle this properly, I'd love to hear about it.

Last edited by cuc1495731597 (2017-05-25 14:10:26)

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