Problems running virtualized Adobe CS 5.5 on Windows 7 64 bit

[MichaelS8]

Hello Community,

I'm trying to virtualize Adobe CS 5.5 with Thinapp 4.7. The build environment is a Windows XP 32 bit with Service Pack 3 and the latest Microsoft updates. The goal is to execute the thinapped version of CS 5.5 on Windows 7 64 bit (SP1, latest updates). Therefor I uncommented "Wow64=0" and "LoadDotNetFromSystem=Win7" in the "Package.ini". Further I've built the package following the descriptions in this document http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-15567

After building the package and deploying it on the Windows 7 machine I can see the following behaviour:

- Photoshop seems to run fine

- InDesign crashes after closing the application

- Illustrator dies at start with this error message: "Missing required plugins: BRS Pencil Tool [...]" and after that "Runtime error! - ... This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an usual way. [...]"

- Adobe Acrobat X encounters an licensing error after start

Did anyone manage to get Adobe CS 5.5 working? And could anyone give me some advice to solve those errors?

Thank you,

Michael

[TobyFruthParson]

Would you mind uploading an attachment of the Package.INI? I packaged InDesign CS5 and would like to compare with the settings in your project.

[MichaelS8]

Here is my Package.ini

As mentioned above, the only changes I made were uncommenting "Wow64" and "LoadDotNetFromSystem".

[TobyFruthParson]

I customized my installation utilizing Adobe's "Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition", available for free at the Adobe web site:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

I installed to C:\AIDCS5.  You might want a different directory.  Sometimes installing to the root of C:\ during the capture process will resolve issues.  Might be worth a try.  Also, the Adobe Application Manager incorporated updates in to the installation package, saving me the need to download the updates on the capture and build machine.

Lastly, I was using an enterprise license key.  Not sure of your situation.

[MichaelS8]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Lakshman]

Have you tried launching Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat atleast once during setup capture before postscan? It's worth giving a try.

[MichaelS8]

Yes, I already did that.

I also gave Toby's advice a try, packaged Adobe CS 5.5 with their Application Manager and installed it to "C:\ADOBECS55". Unfortuantely, that made no difference.

Regarding the "Missing plugin error" Adobe has these solutions (this applies to CS3, but could possibly work on CS 5.5 I guess):

Solution 1: Re-create the Illustrator preferences files.

Solution 2: Verify that the required font is installed and active. (Tahoma on Windows XP, Segoe-UI on Windows Vista)

Solution 3: Run Illustrator in a new administrator user account.

"A damaged user account or an account with limited system permissions may be the cause of the "Missing plugins" error. Create a new administrator account, log on to it, and then try to start Illustrator in the new account."

The problem is, I don't know how those solutions would work with a thinapped application. I was running the Thinapp on the test machine in another account also with full privileges, the fonts are all there and I don't think that the preferences are corrupt because it is a "fresh" installation.

Oh and I noticed that the issue also occurs on a Windows XP SP3 32bit test machine.

Any further help is much appreciated.

[Lakshman]

1. Do you see the same error (missing plugin) when launching Illustrator before post scan?

2. Are you capturing CS 5.5 as an admin user?

[MichaelS8]

1. No, I don't see this message before post scan.

2. Yes, local Windows administrator.

[Lakshman]

That's strange.

I've come across this link but not sure if that will solve the problem:

http://www.nimztech.com/how-to-fix-missing-required-plugin-brs-pencil-tool-expands-pathfinder-suite-...

[TobyFruthParson]

You are definitely trying everything, which is much appreciated.

As for a shortened installation path on the root of C:\, a more specific recommendation would be to ensure that the root folder is no more than 8 characters in length.

Rather than C:\ADOBECS55, which is a 9 character path, I would suggest C:\ACS55, or anything that stays within the gold old 8.3 naming convention.  I don't know that it will make any difference in your case.

How about this:  can you remove VMware tools and Visual C++ 2008 from your capture machine?  I had a situation recently with a package that was exhibiting strange behavior on one of our servers.  Turns out the server did not have the Visual C++ runtime.  I created a snapshot on the capture VM that I can go to whenever I need to capture the Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 runtimes.  Maybe you could give this a try.  I believe some of the Adobe products are expecting one of those runtimes to be present.

I hope they'll let me do a capture of CS 5.5 soon.  Alas, all I have an opportunity to package is CS 5, and it's working for us.  Go figure.

[MichaelS8]

Yay, I've got a working build!! (as a test version, but it doesn't crash)

Thanks to your answers, Adobe's CS 5.5 is now running on Windows 7 64 bit.

Here are my settings:

- Windows 7 32bit with SP1 and the latest updates, withour Visual C++ runtime (this is included in the CS 5.5 installation

- logged in as administrative user with full priveleges

- after pre scan, I installed the suite in C:\ADCS55 and started every application once

- after post scan I uncommented "Wow64=0", "LoadDotNetFromSystem=Win7" in the Package.ini and renamed the folder "Adobe Illustrator CS5.1 Settings" to "AI_prefs_old (you can find that folder in "%AppData%\Adobe", in the project dir)

- then I've built the Thinapp, deployed in on the test box and tada, no "Missing Plugin" error anymore

The CS 5.5 setup was executed directly from the ESD-files. For some reason the Adobe Application Manager package didn't contain Acrobat X.

This thinapped version of CS 5.5 runs on 64bit Windows only, on my 32bit Windows XP (and maybe Windows 7, couldn't test that) the applications crash with a "Licensing error" - error code 131:4.

In the new year I will try those steps with the Adobe License, but I assume that should work either.

So far, thank you Toby and Lakshman for your help.

[srikanthdeep]

Here can i know what do you mean by this? I mean what are the changes exactly you did for that??

"Windows 7 32bit with SP1 and the latest updates, withour Visual C++ runtime (this is included in the CS 5.5 installation"

[MichaelS8]

First of all, I'm using a Windows 7 32bit machine for the build process instead of Windows XP 32bit.

And the second, I made sure that the Visual C++ Runtime is installed by the Adobe CS 5.5 setup.

I hope this explanation is less confusing.

(p.s. "withour" from my last post is a typo that should be "without")