MSI Packaging Adobe Reader and removing the bloat
STEP A – Download Customization wizard tool and the Adobe Offline Installer
I have repackaged Adobe reader 11 using the Customization wizard from Adobe.
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=5515&fileID=5526
Install Customization wizard.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x
AdbeRdr11xxx_en_US.exe -nos_o”C:\Folder” -nos_ne
STEP B – Customization wizard
Step 1 Personalisation Options:
Open the Customization Wizard, click File / Open Package… and browse to AcroRead.MSI located in the folder that contains the extract Reader setup files. You can change the installation path if required:
Step 2 Installation Options:
• Enable Optimization – Windows Installer will defrag the installation post install, leave this option enabled. [Windows Installer property: ENABLE_OPTIMIZATION]
• Enable Caching of installer files on local hard drive – a copy of the Reader install files will be stored on the target machine ( in %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader xx.x\Setup Files or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Adobe\Reader xx.x\Setup Files). If you are deploying Reader with a deployment solution or virtualizing Reader, I recommend disabling this option. [Windows Installer property: ENABLE_CACHE_FILES]
• Run installation – run the installer Unattended by default unless your specific deployment requires the installer to run completely silently (you can control this on the command line as well).
• If reboot required at the end of installation – choose Suppress reboot and control reboots with an external process (such as a script or your deployment solution).

Step 3 Files and Folders:

Step 4 Registry:
• Adobe Reader Speed Launcher
Right-click each of these entries and choose Modify. Set Action to Remove value. This will prevent the installer from adding these entries and starting unnecessary processes at user logon. This step is very important for Terminal Server / Remote Desktop Session Host environments to reduce the processes that will run in each user’s session.

Step 5 Shortcuts:

Step 6 Server Locations:

Step 7 Security:
• Enhanced Security Settings: Standalone and Browser (choose Enable & Lock)
• Prevent end-user to add trusted Files and Folders
• Prevent end-user to add trusted Hosts

Step 8 Digital Signature:

Step 9 EULA:

Step 10 Online and Acrobat.com Features:
• Disable all updates: this will prevent the Adobe Updater from running automatically (but won’t prevent it from installing). The Check for Updates menu option will also be removed.
• Various menu items and features (such as Purchase Adobe Acrobat, Digital Editions) can be disabled
• The Product Improvement Program can be disabled
• The Acrobat.com integration in Reader can be disabled

Step 11 Comments and Forms:

Step 12 File Attachments:
• Default Action for Unspecified File Types: Never launch files of Unspecified Types

Step 13 Launch Other Applications:
the Launch Other Applications settings allow you to specify additional applications to be installed with Reader.
Step 14 Direct Editor:

To disable the Adobe Acrobat Update Service introduced with Reader 10.1, navigate to the ServiceInstall table and take one of two actions
• Drop the row ServiceInstall1 to prevent the install of the service
• Change the value of StartType to 3 (manual) or 4 (disabled)
Disabling Additional Menu Items
After creating a custom installation there are a few menu items (less than previous versions) that you may want to remove for end-users:
These menu items are:
• Help / Online Support… / Knowledge Base
• Help / Online Support… / Adobe Support Programs…
• Help / Online Support… / Adobe User Community…
• Help / Online Support… / Accessibility Resource Center…
• Help / Online Support… / Generate System Report…
• Help / Repair Adobe Reader Installation
Warning: It is extremely important to remove the Repair Adobe Reader Installation menu item on shared systems such as Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Servers – a standard user can initiate a reboot of a computer if the repair kicks in. This is because the repair is applied using Windows Installer which runs in the System context.
Just like previous versions, the only way to disable certain UI elements such as menu items and toolbars is to use JavaScript. This is a two step process – first we need to find out the name of the items we want to disable. To do that you will need to place some JavaScript in a file in the JavaScripts folder where Reader is installed. For example this on x64 Windows, place the file here: %ProgramFiles (x86)%\Adobe\Reader xx.0\Reader\Javascripts. Add the following code into the file and save it as ListItems.js
//Open Javascript Console
console.show();
//List Toolbar Buttons in the Console
var toolbarItems = app.listToolbarButtons()
for( var i in toolbarItems)
console.println(toolbarItems + “\n”)
//List Menu Items in the Console
var menuItems = app.listMenuItems()
for( var i in menuItems)
console.println(menuItems + “\n”)

// [Help – Repair Adobe Reader Installation]
app.hideMenuItem(“DetectAndRepair”);
app.hideMenuItem(“Updates”);
app.hideMenuItem(“Weblink:BuyAcrobat”);
app.hideMenuItem(“eBook:Digital Edition Services”);
app.hideMenuItem(“OnlineSupport”);
app.hideMenuItem(“KnowledgeBase”);
app.hideMenuItem(“AdobeExpertSupport”);
app.hideMenuItem(“AdobeUserCommunity”);
app.hideMenuItem(“AccessOnline”);
app.hideMenuItem(“SystemInformation”);
app.hideMenuItem(“UsageMeasurement”);
app.hideMenuItem(“SPAObject 51”);
app.hideMenuItem(“SPAObject 47”);
