Adobe Writer vs Adobe Reader

[ringmylabelle]

A burned copy of Adobe Writer was distributed in our office, and now we're having a hard time finding out who has Reader and who has both Writer and Reader.

The name of the executable for Adobe Reader (doesn't matter what version it is) is AcroRd32.exe.  The name of the executable for Adobe Writer is Acrobat.exe. If you have Adobe Writer, then acrobat.exe functions both as the reader / writer executable.  In other words, someone who has Adobe Writer does not have AcroRd32.exe on their machine.

Is there anyway I can get SystemHound to differentiate between the 2?  The user guide does discuss Adobe Reader and Writer briefly, but the recommendation it offers does not help.

[Nish]

The name of the executable for Adobe Reader (doesn't matter what version it is) is AcroRd32.exe.  The name of the executable for Adobe Writer is Acrobat.exe. If you have Adobe Writer, then acrobat.exe functions both as the reader / writer executable.  In other words, someone who has Adobe Writer does not have AcroRd32.exe on their machine.

Is there anyway I can get SystemHound to differentiate between the 2?  The user guide does discuss Adobe Reader and Writer briefly, but the recommendation it offers does not help.

Doesn't the User Guide deal with exactly this scenario? It tackles the question of how to identify those machines that have the full version of Acrobat as opposed to just the Reader. If you click on the '+' sign and see the locations where the software was discovered, the 'PROGRAM_FILES\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Acrobat\acrobat.exe', for eaxmple, is Acrobat Writer.

If this still doesn't help, post back here

[ringmylabelle]

Yeah I looked at it more closely...I see where I overlooked.  When you click on the + symbol, it tells you how to identify the different programs by using a different icon, and it also lumps all those machines together.  Don't know why I missed that.

My apologies...thanks for the heads up.

[Sean Dewis]

I too have a similar problem.

We have 22 PCs on the network, 3 of which have Acrobat installed, the rest just Reader v5.1 (the only .exe on those machines is AcroRD32.exe.)  

SystemHound is reporting them all as "Acrobat 5.0", 19 of them detected in Add/Remove Programs, the other 3 (the actual full Acrobat machines) as registry detections.

How do I get systemhound to report the Acrobat Reader 5.1 machines correctly?

[Nish]

Hi,

There should be an entry for 'Adobe Arobat Reader' on the software report, under 'Adobe Acrobat'. These will be the machines with just Reader (AcroRd32.exe).

However the report for 'Adobe Acrobat 5.0' also contains the machines with just the Reader. This is due to their entry in Add/Remove programs which indentifies them as 'Adobe Acrobat 5.0' when really it ought to be 'Adobe Acrobat Reader'.

So you should use the location feature (by clicking on the + button) as a means of distinguishing the two. And the separate entry for 'Adobe Acrobat Reader' on the software report shows just the machines with Reader, and the different versions

Hope this helps to clear things up.