mms.cfg and Flash Player 11.2.202.228

[RoryRut]

Would anyone know why Flash Player 11.2.202.228 does not grey out the 'Change Update Settings' and 'Check Now' buttons in the Flash Player Settings Manager when 'AutoUpdateDisable=1'?  The three radio buttons are greyed out and the 'Never check for updates is selected.' 

We are using Win7 SP1 x64 with IE8 x32 (x64 is there also).

I am trying to upgrade from 11.1.102.63 to 11.2.202.228.

I am using the msi installer. (I do an admin install first.  I have a transform that puts the mms.cfg file in place.)

With 11.1 installed, the buttons are greyed.  When I update to 11.2.202.228, they are not.

All I have in the mms.cfg file is 'AutoUpdateDisable=1'

When I take it out the three radio buttions are still greyed out, but the setting is 'Notify me when updates are available. So it looks like it is reading it.

And, the below the correct settings for turning off all updates and the background updates?

AutoUpdateDisable=1

SilentAutoUpdateEnable=0

[Sunil_Bhaskaran]

The following doc has more info: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/administration-configure-auto-update-notification.html

Thanks,

Sunil

[y_mx_b]

Can the auto updater be retasked to point to an internal (enterprise) distributioin point rather than constantly checking the Adobe (internet) location?  (mms.cfg ??)

(Similar to the way WSUS works: we have our own distribution point which gets updates from Microsoft and clients get updated from that point.) 

Really reduces internet bandwidth usage in a large enterprise.

[Guest]

Hi y=mx+b,

Thanks for your feedback. This feature request was mentioned by other system administrators as well and we're currently considering the addition of this functionality.

[y_mx_b]

Could this be incorporated with the in-house CS5 Update Server (AUSST) ?  Sort of an Adobe equivalent to WSUS. 

[chris.campbell · Accepted solution]

y=mx+b - This post might be of interest to you, see about half way down where I mention the SilentAutoUpdateServerDomain property.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4362336#4362336

[y_mx_b]

Thanks Chris, just what I was looking for!

[Guest]

Hi RoryRut,

The reason why these buttons are not greyed out is because only an administrator will be able to make changes to the update settings. In other words, if you click on these buttons and can either install an update or change the update settings, you have the necessary rights and should be enabled to make these changes.

I invite you to try this out with a user account that doesn't have admin privileges. You will see that this user will be unable to either install an update or change the update settings.

To answer your last question: Yes,

AutoUpdateDisable=1

SilentAutoUpdateEnable=0

will turn off all updates. Note however that this is highly discouraged. If you have a particular reason why these updating mechanisms don't work for you, we'd like to hear about it in the forums.

Hope this helps.

-Stephen

[mholtgrefe]

Rory Rut - I found a quick workaround.  Setting the mms.cfg file to "read only" does the trick.  Unfortunately, it does not grey out the section, but it does not let an administrator select any other option than what is specified in the mms.cfg file.

Stephen - Many times a company gives a user administrator privileges (not by preference) but still want to maintain a certain level of control.  I have seen that when an administrator updates Adobe Flash on their own using the AutoUpdate tool, it breaks the MSI package deployment that I have intended for all machines.  This is exactly the reason I would want to prevent this AutoUpdate action.

[Guest]

Hi mholtgrefe,

A user would still be able to download and install Flash Player from adobe.com. So really, you're just masking a problem by not allowing users to check for updates in the Settings Manager. This is not a safe way to prevent a user from updating Flash Player manually.

[shane1130]

What would be the correct way to do this?  I do not want the users to be able to update flash manually, as it breaks the ability for me to deply the current version via group policy.

[Guest]

Hi shane1130,

The best way to do this is to use standard user accounts for users who shouldn't be allowed to install or uninstall software on your systems. Microsoft gives some advice on the different user account types in Windows here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-a-users-accoun t-type

Hope this helps.

[shane1130]

Standard accounts are not an option, due to the requirements of other software. 

Being able to redirect the autoupdater to a network share as y=mx+b suggests would work for me.