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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I can't get Adobe Reader X to work as a plugin with Firefox

I always thinapp just a barebones Firefox and then thinapp all the plugins seperately (flash, acrobat, quicktime etc) and use Applink,  that way if any of the plugins get updated I just capture the new updated plugin and I'm back up to date, no need to recapture the whole firefox plus extensions etc.

Anyway has always perfectly until Adobe Acrobat Reader X came along.  No matter what I do I cannot get thinapp Acrobat Reader X to work as a plugin with Firefox.  When I try to open a pdf file in firefox all I get is a black screen with a blue line across it.

I can go baqck to Acrobat Reader 9.x and all is well.

I capture in a WinXP VM and use it on my Win 7 workstation.

Any suggestions please?

cheers

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pbjork
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Did you have Mozilla Firefox locally installed on your capturing machine while capturing Adobe X?

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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes I do.  I've checked the captured files and the firefox plugin is where it should be in the \Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins folder.

As I said i my previous post, I've done this many times with previous versions with 100% success.  For some reason Acrobat Reader X won't work.  Maybe I should try creating a Win 7 VM  and see if it makes any difference.

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tradsd
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Enthusiast

Did you do any more testing?  It's definitely possible to be able to run adobe x as a plugin for thinapped mozilla.  This is how we are set up in our environment.

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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes I've retried half a dozen times but always the same result.  the next thing I am going to try is to thinapp Firefox together with acrobat reader X as a plugin rather than as a seperate thinapped program and then using applink.  If the first method then there should be no reason why the latter doesn't.

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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well I started again with the new Firefox 3.6.16, added extrensions and then installed Adobe Reader X and thinapped the lot into a single exe file.  All completed in a WinXP VM.  I tested the thinapped Firefox and pdf files opened perfectly in the VM.  I then copied the thinapped Firefox to my W7 workstation and sure enough Firefox refused to open pdf files.  This time at least I got an error to go with the blue line - "There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader.  If it is running, plesse exit and try again. (103:103)"

This same firefox opened and read that same file on the same website in the WinXP VM yet refuses to in W7.  I may have to create a W7 VM and test it in that.

Any suggestions please?

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tradsd
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I would definitely try creating a new windows 7 vm.  I had a similar situation not too long ago where I needed IE with a certain version of java.  I tested for a day or two on one this one vm and couldn't get it to work but eventually tested on a few other machines as well as the person who needed the package and no problem. 

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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well finally success, well sort of.  After another frustrating day of experimenting I have finally got it working tho not as i wanted.  I had to thinapp both Firefox and Acrobat in a single file rather than seperate files as worked previously with Acrobat Reader v9.  I also had to use a Win 7 VM not an WinXP VM. I also had to create an additional *.exe entry point - Adobe Acrobat X.exe - so that I could run Acrobat Reader first and select "Always run Acrobat Reader with Protected Mode disabled" from the popup the first time Acrobsat Reader is run.  If I didn't do that then Acrobat Reader would not work as a Firefox plugin.

I have no idea why Acrobat Reader won't work as a seperate thinapp in the Firefox plugins folder using Applink.  This has always worked perfectly with all previous versions of Acrobat Reader.

I haven't given up yet and will keep experimenting but in the meantime it buys me time to find the solution I want before an update comes along.

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heywheels
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Enthusiast

Ok this time i have fixed it.  I guess i should have read some of the earlier posts regarding Acrobat Reader, especially the one with the link of the Adobe knowwledgebase site about the Protected mode error.

Well to get Acrobat Reader X to work as a thinapp under Win 7 I strongly recommend you capture it in a Win 7 VM.  These are the steps I took

1.  Create a Win 7 VM

2.  Install ThinApp

3.  Install Firefox and run once [b]then close and do not open again[/b] IMPORTANT

4.  Run THinApp and do precapture

5.  Install Acrobat Reader X

6.  Once installed, run once, accept licence then click 'Edit -> Preferences" Go to Updater and disable updates.  [b]Then click on "General " and uncheck "Enable Protected Mode at Startup"[/b] This is MOST IMPORTANT.  Then click Ok and close Acrobat reader

7. Run PostCapture and use default ThinApp settings (tho I use Adobe AcrobatX.exe as the container not the recommended .dat)

8. When you reach the last step before building the App, edit the package to compress the file and open the capture folder and edit the HKLM.txt file to remove the 2 entries that load Adobew apps at startup then save.

9.  Build the App

I can then copy the built thinapp into the Firefox applinked plugins folder and it works perfectly.

In my opnion the most important things to remember are

1.  Use a Win 7 VM  (not crtain if this is definitely necessary.  Will test again tomorrow with a WinXP VM)

2.  Do not use Firefox once Acrobat has been installed

3.  Disable Protected Mode at startup in Acrobat preferences

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heywheels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well I did my final testing this morning and now I have been able to thinapp Acrobat Reader X and use it as a plugin with Firefox using Applink.  I was able to successfully use a WinXP VM so disregard that part of my previous posts.

Undoubtedly the most important things to remember are

1. Do not run Firefox once Acrobat Reader is installed

2. Disable updates and "Start Acrobat Reader in Protected Mode at startup" in Acrobat Reader preferences

3. Remove the 2 registry entries that start Adobe programs at startup (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ )

Hope this will help someone else

cheers

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