In the last article I talked about the reason we switched over to a concurrent license of Adobe CS4 Design Suite Premium. I also said that I wanted to virtualize the software so Symantec Workspace Streaming could manage the licenses. After spending a long, long time trying to get everything virtualized I bumped into a few tricks I wanted to share. The first tip was breaking Adobe CS4 into two layers. The last article talked about creating an Adobe Acrobat Layer. In this article we are going to create a layer of the following software:
- InDesign CS4
- Photoshop CS4 Extended
- Illustrator CS4
- Flash CS4 Professional
- Dreamweaver CS4
- Fireworks CS4
- Adobe Bridge CS4
- Adobe Device Central CS4
There are a few tricks to this layer as well.
There are a few things that you need to keep in mind before we get going. Your machine needs to have 1 gig of RAM and a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. Also, I would recommend you build this layer (and all layers really) on a clean virtual machine. You just run into less problems when you do that. Less problems = a happy layer. You also need to make sure that the machine (physical or virtual) you are creating the layer on has access to the media you will use to install the software.
If you are ready to get going, lets roll up our sleeves and get started.
Building the second layer:
We are going to install almost all of the software that comes with Adobe CS4 Design Suite Premium (with the exception of Acrobat) into this layer. It will be a much easier process because we will use "Single program capture". Here are the steps:
- Open SVS Admin (or Symantec Software Virtualization Solution Admin)
- Deactivate all of your layers
- Click on File >> Create a new layer... (or press Control + N)
- Select the "Install application" radio button and select the "Next" button
- Name your layer so you will be able to identify what it is and how you use it (I named mine Classroom-ACS4-Acrobat9)
- Select the "Single program capture" radio button, then click the "Next" button.
- In the program name text box enter: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
- Click on the "Next >" button
- Now, click on the "Finish" button
At this point the command prompt will appear. You can enter the address to the "setup.exe" file used to install Adobe CS4 and all of the extras.
The following steps are almost the same as the last article, but I think that it is worth going over them again. There are a few differences.
You will see a screen titled: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Install - Welcome:
On this screen you will need to enter your serial number. Once you have entered it, press the "Next" button.
Now, you will see the end user agreement:
Once you have carefully read it, push the "Accept" button.
Now you are on the "Options" screen. Make sure that the "Custom Install" radio button is installed:
On the right you will see a software list. Un-select the software we don't need:
You will un-select: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, Version Cue CS4 Server, Acrobat.com, Adobe AIR, and Adobe Media Player.
Note: If you are having problems with creating your layer there are a few different things that you can try. One thing that worked for me was not including Version Cue in the layer. I decided that since we aren't going to really use that feature that I would just take it out.
While the software is installing, you will see this screen:
When the install is over, you will see this screen:
Click on the "Register Later" button.
We are all done:
Press the "Exit" button.
Now that the install is over you will need to press <Ctrl> C (at the same time) to stop the install job.
Configure/Update the software:
Dreamweaver:
It is time to update the software. I usually run Dreamweaver to do this (I have no good reason other than it is towards the beginning of the alphabet).
- In the command prompt run: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\Dreamweaver.exe to start Dreamweaver.
- Once Dreamweaver has started you will see a window titled "Default Editor", click the "OK" button to continue
- Once the software has completely loaded, go to Help >> Updates...
- The program will check for updates (and it even updates the update program)
- Once it is done click on the "Preferences" link
- Un-check the box next to "Automatically check for Adobe updates:" and press the "OK" button
- It will scan for updates again. Once it is done, press the "Download and Install Updates" button
- Close Dreamweaver (this will allow the update program to actually update Dreamweaver)
Once the updates are done I like to run each application once. Here are the paths of the different programs you need to run (remember, all you have to do is open the program and make sure that everything is okay):
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\Dreamweaver.exe
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Fireworks CS4\Fireworks.exe
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Flash.exe
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS4\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS4\InDesign.exe
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Photoshop.exe
Once you have checked all of the software you can close the command prompt window.
Now you can clean up the layer how you please. Make sure you remove all of the fonts (so it works properly).
Note:
If your layer does not appear to be working (or at least some of the apps in the layer don't seem to work) I have found a work around:
- Go to My Computer
- Navigate to C:\Windows
- Copy the folder named: WinSxS
- Paste WinSxS on your desktop
- In the SVS Admin window deactivate your layer
- Right click on your layer and go to "Edit advanced layer properties"
- Now, to go (in the read-only section) System >> [WINDIR] and copy that folder
- Paste the folder you just copied from the layer "named winsxs" to your desktop
- A window titled "Confirm Folder Replace" will appear. Click on the "Yes to All" button
- We have merged the information from the computer and the layer into a folder on the desktop.
Inside the read-only section of the layer delete the folder named "winsxs"
Copy the "WinSxS" folder from the desktop and paste it into the [WINDIR] folder
I have found that addign the files in WinSxS into the layer made things work better. H
Conclusion:
We now have to layers that are good to go. You can do all of the normal testing that you normally to do make sure that everything works.
It took me forever to get all of this figured out and working. Thankfully the steps are simple and straightforward. From the testing I have done everything seems to work just fine. In the next article we will go through the steps required to stream Adobe CS4, including how to you can use Symantec Workspace Streaming to manage concurrent licenses.