Adobe Reader and Acrobat XI was announced at the beginning of the month with a load of new features. One of them that made me as an IT Pro excited was the Group Policy templates that would allow more flexible control and configuration over the applications. Today, Adobe Reader 11 and Acrobat 11 Pro became available and with them also came the Group Policy templates. Here’s a little dive into what is available through the group policy configuration.
You can purchase Acrobat XI Pro or Standard from Adobe.com or Amazon.com (Mac / Windows). Adobe Reader XI can be downloaded from Adobe.com or from Adobe’s FTP site.
On their FTP site, you will also find .zip files for the ADM templates separate for both Acrobat XI and Reader XI.
Both zip files contain the .adm and .admx format of the templates along with the necessary .adml language files. You then copy those files to %SystemRoot%PolicyDefinitions on the computer where you do your Group Policy editing or to your organization’s Central Store so all computers will be able to edit with the templates.
Once copied into place, you will find Adobe Acrobat XI and Adobe Reader XI relevant settings under both Computer ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative Templates and User ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative Templates.
The settings allow you to configure various settings that affect and user experience.
Acrobat Computer Configuration:
- Auto Complete (Lock auto-fill on or off)
- Disable PDF handler switching
- Disable automatic updates
- Display PDFs in browser
- Show messages when I launch Acrobat
- Turn off user participation in the feedback program
Acrobat User Configuration:
- Accept the EULA
- Display splash screen at launch
- Ask before installing trust anchors checkbox
- Enable Acrobat JavaScript
- Load security settings from a server
- Automatically trust sites for Windows OS security zones
Reader Computer Configuration:
- Auto Complete (Lock auto-fill on or off)
- Disable PDF handler switching
- Disable automatic updates
- Display PDFs in browser
- Don’t show messages while viewing a document
- Show messages when I launch Reader
- Turn off user participation in the feedback program
Reader User Configuration:
- Accept the EULA
- Display splash screen at launch
- Ask before installing trust anchors checkbox
- Enable Acrobat JavaScript
- Load security settings from a server
- Automatically trust sites for Windows OS security zones
The settings are definitely a great step forward. There have been instances before where Acrobat/Reader security was breached and it was recommended to disable JavaScript in the applications. It was possible to send out a registry key through Group Policy or scripts but this gives much better flexibility and requires less technical know-how to manage these settings.
The Adobe Customization Wizard XI for Mac is available from Adobe.com or FTP. The Spelling Dictionary packs, Asian and Extended Language packs, and multi-lingual installer are also available from Adobe’s new downloads page. You can review the guide for the XI Wizard along with the Acrobat XI deployment checklist.
Update: The Adobe Customization Wizard XI for Windows was released early November.