Acrobat in VDI

[FMCUSystemAdmin]

Hello,

We've been having a heck of a time getting Acrobat to work properly in VDI. "Work properly" in this context is 1) editing a PDF and 2) inserting a .docx per our user reports.

Here's our setup:

• VMware Horizon 8 (2006) non-persistent instant clones

• AppVolumes 4 (2009) using "UIA plus Profile" template

All installs of Acrobat have followed Adobe's virtualization guide. We've already reached out to Adobe and were flat-out told that they do not support virtualized Acrobat, which is quite interesting considering the public guide they have.

Frustrations with that aside, here are the scenarios in which we've tested Acrobat:

• Master-image

  • With Writable enabled

    • Editing a PDF

    • Inserting a .docx (never finishes)

  • With Writable disabled

    • Everything works (We reached out to VMware asking about Acrobat settings that may need to be in Snapvol.cfg, but they indicated there were no such settings)

• Layered (no difference with Writable status)

  • Editing a PDF

  • Inserting a .docx

We do not know what else to try or what we're doing wrong. Obviously disabling everybody's Writable is not an option. I find it hard to believe we are the only ones trying to use Acrobat in a VDI environment.

Does anybody have experience with virtualizing Acrobat? Was there something special you had to do? We're all ears.

All screenshots.

Thanks!

[CTRIM]

Well, it looks like you've already posted here...

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/VirtualizationGuide/vmware.html

Here is the app volumes guide too, which I just found and remembered following...

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/VirtualizationGuide/appvacrobatDC.html#tuning

I went through and gathered up all of the reg punches I thought were relevant to our environment and put them in the base.

See this link for them...

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/PrefRef/Windows/index.html

And we have the HKCU\Software\Adobe hive saved for each user using DEM.

They would not be recognized if they were only in the app stack. This whole thing took over a year of on again off again work to get working so it is not super simple.

[FMCUSystemAdmin]

I think that second link is for Microsoft App-V. You're saying that these steps are still applicable for an AppVolumes package?

[CTRIM]

Sorry, you're correct. I will keep looking. The link that I think I remember had a short snippet about VMware AppVol.

Did what I reply with help at all?

[FMCUSystemAdmin]

I appreciate your help, but unfortunately we have been referencing those articles for the last month and a half to no avail.

We are actually strongly considering moving to FSLogix due to these difficulties (these haven't been the only difficulties we've had with AppVolumes).

[CTRIM]

This install for Acrobat in App Volumes was a pain for sure. We've never had issues with any other application installs for App Volumes aside from some proprietary apps. I don't blame you for looking at alternatives. I do not know enough about FSLogix to say wether it would help or not.

[FMCUSystemAdmin]

Well let's just say that when we didn't change a thing with the Acrobat installation (on master-image) and the only thing that changed was the profile management tooling and Acrobat suddenly works as expected, it's pretty compelling....

[CTRIM]

So you're working perfectly without explanation as you understand it as to why...?

[FMCUSystemAdmin]

We do not have an explanation as to why Acrobat works better with FSLogix than it does with AppVolumes