Best way to distribute adobe flash ?

[caffrey]

What's the best / foolproof method for distributing flash ?

After jumping through hoops to get the msi I tried via gpo software installation with no luck.

Just need a solution that doesn't care so much about security levels (I think thats what the issue was with the gpo method)

 

cheers

[placky]

We use GPO to deploy the MSI - might be worth getting it working with GPO as it works perfectly now

[kmount]

What is the issue with gpo based deployment? It's ideal in all of our environments.

[witch]

We use GPO and have no issues - we did have a problem with an earlier version of Flash though - are you sure it is the GPO issue and not that?

[jbamforth]

I'm in need of the msi if you'd be good enough to email it to me thanks

[Azhibberd]

I'm gonna agree with the MSI as well, Works fine here for the deployment! Maybe you didn't create the msi folder share with permission for system to have access to it? thats a common one to catch people on on msi deployment

[Hightower]

I'm in need of the msi if you'd be good enough to email it to me thanks

 

Just go to the adobe site, then click on Flash, then click on Distribute Flash. You'll have to do that anyways as you need a licence from Adobe to be able to roll it out via MSI.

[Azhibberd]

Adobe - Flash Player Licensing

[caffrey]

I created a share for it with full permissions tried with $ share too to hide it - still nothing.

 

I've been putting it in computer configuration \ software policies \ software installation - is this correct - or should it be in user ?

 

Also its just started throwing up errors when adding the package "unable to extract deployment information" ?

 

i created the package with msiexec /a "install_flash_player_10_active_x.msi" - correct ?

 

cheers

 

mark

[sonofsanta]

Shouldn't need to create the package at all should you - I thought it just came down as an MSI? I know we just created a GPO off that and it works fine.

[sparkeh]

Shouldn't need to create the package at all should you - I thought it just came down as an MSI? I know we just created a GPO off that and it works fine.

 

Yep when you licence it properly you get the option of an msi which you can allocate straight out via gpo.

 

Also worth creating %windir%\system32\Macromed\Flash\mms.cfg with the line AutoUpdateDisable=1 to stop the annoying nag message about updating.

[Michael]

Remember there are two versions of Flash. Flash Active X (for Internet Explorer) and Flash Plugin (for Firefox). Pushing them out via an MSI is recommended on Computer Config, not User, as all users will require Flash in some form!

[caffrey]

I was hoping to get rid of that nag screen , currently have an issue with "No Package in the software installation data in the active directory meets the criteria" - after a refresh the package is there tho so no idea why its throwing that at me.

Going to do a bit more testing

 

cheers

[sparkeh]

I was hoping to get rid of that nag screen , currently have an issue with "No Package in the software installation data in the active directory meets the criteria" - after a refresh the package is there tho so no idea why its throwing that at me.

Going to do a bit more testing

 

cheers

 

Hmm that's not the error to do with local paths is it?

Always specify UNCs to the installation source in the GPO.

 

EDIT: Also sometimes that error occurs if you alter the package, sometimes I have found that I have to recreate the GPO from scratch.

[caffrey]

seems like the gpo i was using did get corrupted (alarmingly easy to break?) - created a test gpo and it appears to have worked / installed fine using the default msi from adobe.

Planning a radical overhaul of the gpo system in half term, i'll create a specific software gpo that i can delete easier

 

thanks everyone for the help

[djones]

Planning a radical overhaul of the gpo system in half term, i'll create a specific software gpo that i can delete easier

 

FWIW, I use one GPO for each piece of software.

[caffrey]

that's what i ended up doing in the end, managed to get java installing the same way too

the gpo seemed to break easily when changing stuff, so its easier just to delete / recreate

 

cheers

[jsnetman]

One gpo for each msi seems a bit radical, I have one gpo for about 100 msi's and never had a problem, most of the teachers here want identical machines in each room. The variant from that if we are not site licensed for a bit of software then create a gpo for a specific room and put them in there.

 

You will also have an overhead for each gpo you create

[caffrey]

100(!) we rarely had a need to keep upto date, but certain software that the school has started using is pretty much demanding latest java + flash - probably have to do the same with acrobat.

 

My only concern after testing with this distribution method is the time it takes to install - especially on the older machines, also java has been hanging a few of them too. I like as little disruption for the end user as possible (and the support calls ;p)