#1 2008-11-06 13:16:08

**_wsipc-mike_**

Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

I am trying to front-load the add-in so user won't have to deal with that during a Connect meetings. I will install it and test it but usually the user will have to install it themselves again anyway. Does the add-in only install at the user level?

**_dyun_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Hi there,

The Add-In is available as a standalone installer from this page:
http://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/common/h … nloads.htm

If you have some kind of corporate systems management tool that can push software to user desktops, such as IBM Tivoli or HP OpenView, I believe they can be used to push the add-in to end user desktops.

Best,
David

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

I understand where to get installer; that's not my issue. What is happening is a user is installing the add-in and everything is fine. Then, say the next day, a different logs into the same physical computer and is again prompted to install the add-in.

We already pushed it out to all computers in the company but are still getting intermittent calls reporting it's not installed. When we go to manually install it, the following day we get the call again.....

**_peterryce_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Unfortunately you cannot install for All Users. When the Flash Player launches a meeting, it will always and only look in the individual user directory to see if the Addin is present and then use the Addin to launch the meeting if it finds it. This applies to both Windows and Mac platforms.

IHTH,

Peter.reteP

**_eefranklin718_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

I know this is an old thread, but we recently had this issue.  Our users do not have the ability to install software, and using admin credentials at the UAC prompt installed it in the admin's profile, instead of the user's. 

Here's how we solved it and made it per computer on Vista SP2.  All without turning UAC off.

1) Log in as an admin and install the Connect Add-In.

2) Browse to the plug-in directory; directory should contain 1 .exe and 1 .s.  **Note, there is a space in ...\Flash Player\...**
     C:\users\%your_admin_account%\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\connectaddin6x5\

3) Run the connectaddin6x5.exe file, which will create 2 .dll files.  It will also launch a window, which is okay to close after the 2 .dll files have been created.

4) Copy  "\www.macromedia.com\bin\connectaddin6x5\*.*" to a central location for easier access.

5) Copy "\www.macromedia.com\bin\connectaddin6x5\*.*" to c:\users\default\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\connectaddin6x5\*.*
    **When any new user to the system logs in and their profile is generated, this will include the Connect Add-In plugin

6) For users who already have a profile, we created a simple .bat script to xcopy the directory structure and files created in Step 4 to "C:\Users\%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\"

7) Have the user run the script once and the plug in will be installed for the user.

8) Log in to/Refresh the meeting.

--------------------
I hope this helps.  If there's a better way to do this without disabling UAC, I'm interested.  Or maybe an MSI to push with GPO.  Or even a Setup.exe that can be run with User privileges.  But with 10-15 users per computer and 100+ computers, this was our best solution.

Evan Franklin
Field Service Engineer, SAIC

**_TrevorMartin_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

With Windows, using Group Policy is your best bet unless you have SCCM. SCCM is magical.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Since the add-in is required for both sides of a meeting, using GPO's or SCCM for add-in deployment wouldn't really be practical. Unless, that is, all your Connect hosts, presenters, and participants (both licensed and guests) were members of the same manageable domain(s).

Oh, and all the users would have to be using Windows.

**_TrevorMartin_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

The add-in is only required to present things, not to view them.

Yes, as I said, with Windows. For multiple domains or forests you could at least make replica policies. But if you suffer from the "We support multiple OS platforms" affliction like we do, then you want more than just GPO :).  We have Windows, Mac OS X (Leopard, Snow Leopard, & Lion), and several different Linux types (Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, and even some Sun boxes). You could write different types of scripts to automate the installation of the add-in. For Macs, it's as simple as dropping the www.macromedia.com directory in the Flash Player dir. I had to do this for some people who upgraded to Lion since Lion breaks the add-in.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

The add-in is only required to present things, not to view them.

While that is technically true, it's somewhat moot due to the message the the 'viewer' sees as soon as they enter the meeting room:

"To use this application, you need the Adobe Connect Add-in. Would you like to install in now?"

If they are just viewers, they could just click 'No' and continue with no problem. But very few users will think to do that and I sure don't want to start training users to just ignore messages like these. This message makes the add-in a de facto requirement for both presenters and viewers.

Making replication policies is a good idea but, as I said, would require all users to exist in the same manageable domain(s).

What I am thinking of doing to creating a hybrid solution of your suggestion and what we were doing already. That is to say, writing scripts for all OS's and making them available for download to our various customers.

**_jcwarren_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

I was glad to see that eefranklin718 and I had similar ideas on how to resolve this issue but we used a more automated process to eliminate any need for users to invoke anything. I obtained the necessary digest.s and DLL files as noted above (ver 8x has a slightly different path), copied them to a network resource, wrote two VBScripts to perform the necessary actions (summarized below).

We developed a two stage process to faciliate the installation on Windows 7 x64 with UAC enabled:

1. Run a script as an elevated admin (incorporated into our image build process too)
     - installs the add-in
     - copies necessary files locally
     - writes to Active Setup section of registry

2. Active Setup calls local script
     - copies required files to current user profile

Step 2 above happens at logon for each user, new or existing, which makes Connect available on demand.

Some details:

Path for version 8x is "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\connectaddin\"

Active Setup path: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\AdobeConnectAdd-in\" (you can name your app key anything you want)

Requires two string values: StubPath = [command to execute] and Version = 1 (increment this to force update at next logon)

Users simply go about their business and things just work. It's all good.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Will this handle add-in updates on its own as well? Seems that any Flash updates (which are less than rare) also trigger add-in updates. I would hate to have to do all this and still have to tell folks they need to update their add-in manually anyway.

Last edited by **_wsipc-mike_** (2012-02-01 15:16:25)

**_jcwarren_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Updates to the Connect Add-in will have to be deployed to existing machines (via SCCM, etc.) like any other app and the registry 'Version' entry incremented. When necessary, we plan to do just that. Incrementing the version entry will cause Active Setup to run again for each user at logon.

Connect is new for me and I don't know how tightly it's intertwined with Flash. I've not noticed any references to Flash version dependencies. We do update Flash regularly so hopefully that won't dork things up with Connect.

The solution I summarized in my previous post seems to be working well on our conference room PCs. We'll see if things still work when the next version of Connect is released.

All of this scripting, etc. would be moot if Adobe would merely provide an enterprise solution for the Connect Add-in. Expecting all end users to be administrators in a corporate environment is so '90s.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

The problem with deployment is the add seems to be tied, not to the PC, but to the users profile on said PC. So when users use a different PC's in the office thought the week (e.g. running a training session in a meeting room), they are asked to install the app again.

If it was just tied the PC (i.e. All Users), this wouldn't be an issue.

**_Jorma_at_RealEyes_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Adobe Connect requires Flash Player 10.1 or better. It is documented here: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconn … specs.html

The add-in only requires admin rights on the computer if you are running the exe file to install it. If you install it via the Trouble Shooting page, or in the meeting room, admin rights are not required.

That said, there is not an version that can be pushed as an enterprise solution (as you have seen) because the add-in is not required for all attendees. At this point, you only really need it if you are sharing your screen. Granted, it does provide some other niceties, but nothing that is a show stopper of functionality. If Adobe is to make a version of the add-in that can be easily pushed in an enterprise environment, then I would make sure that you and everyone else you can find starts to make some noise about it. Put it in the Suggestions for Adobe Connect forum here and Adobe's wishlist page. The more the product team hears about a demand for a new feature, the more likely they are to devote resources to it.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Good suggestion. Will do. Thanks.

**_jcwarren_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Our experience was not that related by Jorma_at_RealEyes.

The only reason I got involved in automating the installation of the add-in is because non-admin users were receiving an administrative credential challenge from Windows 7 UAC when attempting to install it when prompted in the meeting room. Is there some setting on the backend that would allow non-admins to install?

I'm on my way to add my voice to the wish list, etc. Thanks for the suggestion and links!

**_jcwarren_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

wsipc-mike, the solution we're using solves the problem you note. Users are never prompted to install anything; it just works.

**_wsipc-mike_**

Re: Connect Add-in. Per user or per computer?

Again, the add-in is required for both sides of a meeting. So using GPO's or SCCM for add-in deployment isn't practical. If all your Connect hosts, presenters, and participants -- both licensed and guests -- are members of the same manageable domain(s), and they are all using Windows, you're golden. But we have a mixed environment here (as do many places, I imagine).

All the other enterprise-level apps we use have some kind of deployment mechanism that ties the installation to the workstation, not the user account. With these apps, even if the remote user has to install the plug-in manually on each of their systems, it's a one time thing. Given that we are using a product called "Adobe Connect Enterprise" (or at least that's what it was called when we bought it), it seems a bit silly to not provide any kind of enterprise deployment solution.