Installation issues in corporate environment

[Guest]

Hi all.

I´m a system administrator in a large enterprise with aprox. 12.000 windows clients. Amongst others, I´m responable for the distribution of software updates (Operating System, MS Office and the Adobe products Acrobat and Flash). Since yesterday we have a massive problem with the latest security update for flash player activeX. As usual we pull all available adobe updates via SCUP (System Center Updates Publisher) and publish them in SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager). After that, I create an update group in SCCM, create a deployment package and deploy the package.

Unfortunately the update fails on about 50 - 60 % of the windows clients. The situation is very strange on those machines where the update fails, because the software center tells that the package is installed and in "programs and features" the new 13.0.0.182 flash player is listed. But the Flash control panel applet tells that there is no activeX version installed

There is also no Flash64_13_0_0_182.ocx in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash (and no Flash32_13_0_0_182.ocx in C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash) and no other flash ocx at all.

We also distribute the new flash player plugin update in the same deployment package. It installs flawlessly.

Because of this issue I have stopped the distribution of the activeX update until I have a solution. In my opinion it is a bug in the installation package.

Our clients use MS Windows 7 64-bit EN SP1 with MS SCCM 2012 installed

[Guest]

Similar problem here.

We distribute via group policy. The update seems to be installed correctly and is also shown  in "programs and features", but the plugins do not work.

Reinstall helps, but is no option.

[Guest]

Has anyone resolved this?  Just found the same problem here on over 5,000 machines.  If I remove 13 and try to put 12 back on it now fails too...

[Guest]

You cannot just reinstall version 12, because the OS thinks the flashplayer is installed successfully, although it isn´t. You have to completely wipe all current versions of the flashplayer. Just download the Flash Player Uninstaller here -> http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/support/uninstall_flash_player.exe

WARNING! This uninstalls both the plugin and the activeX FlashPlayer. After that, download and install both the plugin and the activeX FlashPlayer 13.

[Guest]

Looking at the FlashInstall log it appears that version 12 is doing something after the v13 install...

=O====== M/12.0.0.44 2014-04-14+11-21-40.602 ========

0000 00000010 "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\{F8CB5708-0E21-4FC4-90CE-9EB67C9C188A}\InstallFlashPlayer.exe" -uninstall activex

Perhaps that is what screws it on some machines?  Removing and reinstalling v13 works fine so looking to automate that in SCCM for computers where is has failed, perhaps by detecting the product code and the fact that there are files missing from system32/macromed

[Guest]

We´ve removed the 13 update from our policy and choose immediate uninstall and put it back in. The clients first uninstalls and then reinstalls the update on next reboot. No problems till now.

[BryanP68]

Tom Etterler wrote:

You cannot just reinstall version 12, because the OS thinks the flashplayer is installed successfully, although it isn´t. You have to completely wipe all current versions of the flashplayer. Just download the Flash Player Uninstaller here -> http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/support/uninstall_flash_player.exe

WARNING! This uninstalls both the plugin and the activeX FlashPlayer. After that, download and install both the plugin and the activeX FlashPlayer 13.

As a side note, the uninstaller does remove both versions by default, but if for some reason you only want to target one of them you can do so.  You just append "activex" or "plugin" at the end of the command line.  Ex:  uninstall_flash_player.exe -uninstall activex will remove the activex component while leaving the plugin untouched.

I'm still having the corrupted install problem as of the .214 release.  Hoping that Adobe will address this soon.

[Guest]

What I ended up doing with SCCM was to create a dummy app called "Adobe Flash Player 13 Active X - Broken" with a PowerShell detection method of:

if ( !(Test-Path C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\Flash64_13_0_0_182.ocx) -and (Get-WmiObject Win32_Product | Where {$_.IdentifyingNumber -match '{8F9B1C8E-F50E-4139-8701-45016021E102}' }) )

    {

        Write-Host "Broken"

    }

else

    {

    }

I then changed the detection method of the normal installer to not only look for the MSI code but also to make sure that the .ocx file was present.

Now if the problem occurs SCCM detects the broken app.  When it next tries to install the normal app again it will uninstall the broken one first.  This seemed to be the fastest way to get it resolved with SCCM.

Thanks

[HSSKC]

I'm seeing the same thing in my environment. This latest release is definitely broken. We use System Center Essentials for deployment. I am getting mixed results with my deployment of 13.0.0.182. Some clients installed it just fine. Other's reported to SCE that it is installed but the active x does not work in IE and reports no flash player installed. Other's report to SCE that the install is "In Progress" and report a status of "Not Installed". But when you open Windows Update on the client and check for updates it does not show that Flash 13.0.0.182 is available.

[Guest]

I've resolved this using the above method.  In my environmnent I've got about 1,500 machines which have a night time maintanance window and power on just for patching/updates.  It worked fine on all of these first time, but no user was logged on so could be related to that?

On the remaining 3,500 machines where users may or may not have been logged on it failed on about 200.

[Jeff_M_Wiens]

Unfortunately we're experiencing the same issue on about 10% of our machines.  I can't say I understand your fix.  On my broken machines simply uninstalling the broken package and reinstalling hasn't been fixing the problem.  It simply reoccurs after reinstallation.  Has that been working for you?

[TechAFG]

I am experiencing the same issues as above. The plugin works fine but active does not. Does anyone have a permanent solution for this.  We should not have to jump through hoops to get a simple deployment to install correctly.  All the other versions worked correctly until version 13.  Adobe should release an update to resolve this issue. 

[mutant27]

We use SCCM and created a Task Sequence to verify the existance of the .ocx file.  If it's not located, then Flash is uninstalled and then reinstalled.  The Task Sequence then verifies the file exists.  If not, an error is reported.  If it is, then it finishes with a success.  You only have to do this for the ActiveX portion.  Hope this helps.

[powershell_guru]

I'm deploying via SMP 7.1 and have the same issue with 5000+!  What is going on?  Can you provide the name of the .ocx file youre referring too?  If I can key off of that, then I can do a detection check for it too.

Thanks!

[Guest]

We've got the same issue ActiveX 13.0.0.182 and SCUP. I already tried uninstalling all Flash products, installing 11.9.900.170 and update again - the issue reappears.

At the moment I can't figure out what causes the problems because not all computers are affected but I refuse to continue the rollout on about 5000 machines.

[TechAFG]

I ended up deploying it using the exe file instead of the msi file via a task sequence.  If the client already has 13.0.0.182 on it, the deployment will fail unless you run the uninstaller.  So far Active X been installing successful...Keeping my fingers crossed until tomorrow when most users are in.

[Jeff_M_Wiens]

Yes, this has been my answer as well.  There's something different about the EXE that fixes the problem.  Of course the EXE should be the SAME as the MSI but it's behaving differently in this case.

[FrankRossetti]

Having same issues with SCCM 2012 and the latest verson of Flash ActiveX (13.0.0.206) msi.

Modifying the deployment to use the EXE seems to work, but I feel that this is unacceptable.

[gldni]

Still having this issue with Flash Version 13.0.0.214.

[BryanP68]

Are people still seeing this problem with 14.0.0.125?  I've been running the flash uninstaller prior to the reinstall in SCCM, but if the problem has been resolved I'd like to eliminate that step.