I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
this. Windows Updates is disabled, Program Updates is disabled. I
think maybe it comes through Firefox. The only Firefox updates I
allowed was to Firefox itself, so I'm disabling that too. Adobe
sucks.

John Doe wrote:
> I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
> it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
> updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
> The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
> this. Windows Updates is disabled, Program Updates is disabled. I
> think maybe it comes through Firefox. The only Firefox updates I
> allowed was to Firefox itself, so I'm disabling that too. Adobe
> sucks.

This is undoubtedly a crock, but you can test it.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403175.html

"Is it possible to disable Adobe AIR auto-updates?

AIR SettingsManager application

http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/app...ngsManager.air
"

which is written in, you guessed it, AIR :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Integrated_Runtime

Paul

JD wrote:
> John Doe wrote:
>> I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
>> it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
>> updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
>> The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
>> this. Windows Updates is disabled, Program Updates is disabled. I
>> think maybe it comes through Firefox. The only Firefox updates I
>> allowed was to Firefox itself, so I'm disabling that too. Adobe
>> sucks.
>
> See if this helps:
>
> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/04/09/ado...reader_sl-exe/
>

I can see those two items in Sysinternals Autoruns. (I found them
in a Win2K virtual machine, so now I understand the arm reference.)

Using the tick boxes in Autoruns, you could stop the launch (or
try to stop it, depending on what other resource the program has).

They're not on my WinXP machine, because I use an ancient version
of Acrobat Reader over there. That version pesters me about installing
AIR, over and over again.

Paul

John Doe wrote:

> I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
> it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
> updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
> The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
> this. Windows Updates is disabled, Program Updates is disabled. I
> think maybe it comes through Firefox. The only Firefox updates I
> allowed was to Firefox itself, so I'm disabling that too. Adobe
> sucks.

You could uninstall all Adobe software, use their cleanup tool, and then
move to a smaller and faster PDF viewer (and even lets you annotate)
without the bloatware and which is more secure (both in available user
config settings and in a low-profile against attacks), like PDF-Xchange,
also free.

You'll still probably want to keep Adobe's Flash Player but get their
standalone installer instead of using their auto-update web page which
nails you with ADM (Adobe Download Manager). It usually takes me a few
minutes to figure out how to pretend the auto-install failed (I just
refuse the install) to navigate around to find the alternate downloads,
but there are online articles that give hints on how to install without
ADM, likw:

http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/27/dow...nload-manager/

Paul <nospam needed.com> wrote:

> Using the tick boxes in Autoruns

I use that utility, especially for the "jump to registry entry"
feature.

> I use an ancient version of Acrobat Reader over there. That
> version pesters me about installing AIR, over and over again.

It should be illegal, if it isn't.

The thing actually crashed my system, twice. I was watching an
ESPN3 tennis match when stuff froze. The Adobe program button had
just come up on the taskbar, probably doing the usual unauthorized
Adobe update crap.
--



















>
> Paul

On 16 Aug 2011 10:19:07 GMT, John Doe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
>it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
>updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
>The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
>this. Windows Updates is disabled, Program Updates is disabled. I
>think maybe it comes through Firefox. The only Firefox updates I
>allowed was to Firefox itself, so I'm disabling that too. Adobe
>sucks.


MJ Registry Watcher. It can get in the way depending on what you're
doing, but between casual browsing and occasional test installs,
basically my registry is locked out. Oh, it does its pop-up thing
when someone's at your registry again. Some of the time, sometimes I
don't see it and have to remember to shut it down temporarily from
Taskmanager.

After Ghosting it's always the first the thing to pop up with good ol'
Adobe trying to do its thing on just about any sizable webpage.

John Doe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
>it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
>updates. I tried deleting some folders and they just get restored.
>The POS just crashed my system, so I need to put some effort into
>this. Windows Updates is disabled.

Adobe is one of the companies that are allowed to back door
past windows firewall in Win7 - I keep on stuff like that.

I use PeerBlock mostly for P2P but the most important thing you can run is
your HOSTS file - I block malware ads, adobe, Opera's Unite, lots of Opera
links and it's my Browser of choice.

I started with this HOSTS file: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts
and use the free program Hosts Xpert to add to it.

To block Adobe I have this list. The updates you need to check each program
or your firewall for the update program (then block it), this mostly bypasses
registrations. To find a ip address to add to a host file use NetStat or
www.Systernals.com TCPVIEW

# Adobe Photoshop - registration

127.0.0.1 3dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ctivate-sjc0.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ctivate.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ctivate.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ctivate.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ctivate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ativate.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 dobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 dobe-dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 dobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobeereg.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.newoa practivate.adobe.ntp
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.ipp
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 hl2rcv.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.adobeereg.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 www.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 crl.verisign.net
127.0.0.1 CRL.VERISIGN.NET
127.0.0.1 ood.opsource.net


--
Lady Gaga - Born this Way with Madonna express yourself mix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1GdLYcFOg
Perfect mix of the the two songs.

John Doe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I don't just mean the company, I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever
>it's called. I need to stop the damn thing from checking for
>updates.

I assume a windows OS

Use Autoruns and disable:
- AcrobatUpdater.exe
- AdobeExtractFiles.dll
- ReaderUpdater.exe
From loading

after I posted, I checked Google
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/523112

Autoruns isn't updated for Win7, I figure if it were you
could disable some of the DRM. www.systernals.com was purchased
just before Vista was released.

But it will work for Win7 www.sysinternals.com/bb963902

But always run a HOSTS file, it's just common sense after you know what
it's capable of doing. What you have installed is blank by default.
----

Any of the new Adobe programs will load you up with bloatware
ARM, AIR...

I quit at Photoshop CS2 and use Foxpro for my PDF reader.

--
Lady Gaga - Born this Way with Madonna express yourself mix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1GdLYcFOg
Perfect mix of the the two songs.

Mark wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> John Doe wrote:
>>
>>> I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever it's called. I need to stop the
>>> damn thing from checking for updates.
>>
>> You'll still probably want to keep Adobe's Flash Player but get
>> their standalone installer instead of using their auto-update web
>> page which nails you with ADM (Adobe Download Manager).
>>
>> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/27/dow...nload-manager/
>
> I do this but it doesn't stop Adobe putting stuff in the RunOnce key.

I don't use Adobe Reader (use PDF-Xchange instead). You sure the
Runonce entry isn't just the old trick of pre-loading the app pre-fetch
cache for a quicker load of the product sometime later?

Installers that shove in a startup entry without permission or notice is
why I use WinPatrol to alert and prompt me to allow the change when the
startup list gets changed. Other security products with HIPS (host
intrusion protection system) should do the same thing, like many 3rd
party firewalls with HIPS (Online Armor, Comodo).

Mark wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Mark wrote:
>>
>>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>>
>>>> John Doe wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I mean the POS "ARM" or whatever it's called. I need to stop the
>>>>> damn thing from checking for updates.
>>>>
>>>> You'll still probably want to keep Adobe's Flash Player but get
>>>> their standalone installer instead of using their auto-update web
>>>> page which nails you with ADM (Adobe Download Manager).
>>>>
>>>> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/27/dow...nload-manager/
>>>
>>> I do this but it doesn't stop Adobe putting stuff in the RunOnce
>>> key.
>>
>> I don't use Adobe Reader (use PDF-Xchange instead). You sure the
>> Runonce entry isn't just the old trick of pre-loading the app
>> pre-fetch cache for a quicker load of the product sometime later?
>
> Yes. I have checked the registry and there it is. This is not for
> Adobe Reader BTW, but for Flash Player.

Using SysInternals' AutoRuns and regedit, I found no entry for Adobe
Flash. I have Adobe Flash Player (for IE8). Maybe there's no startup
entry for it because I configured it to NOT check for updates.

To configure the AX control (Flash Player), either use the Flash Player
applet in Control Panel or visit their config web page at:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/do...s_manager.html

Settings are saved in a .sol file. If you are using a cleanup utility
then it might be deleting the settings.sol. CCleaner for a long time
was deleting the settings.sol cookie file before I (and probably
others) told them what this was for and they excluded it in later
versions. After all, while you may want to get rid of .sol cookies for
web sites, you don't want to get rid of your config for Flash Player
(where you chose to disable updates and otherwise restrict the AX
control, like not allowing local storage).

As a test, I enabled auto-update checking in the Flash Player but still
nothing for it showed up as a startup item. In my experience, the Flash
Player checks for updates when it gets loaded which means you have to
visit a web page with Flash content. Nothing remains resident to look
for updates when you aren't rendering Flash content (i.e., if you're in
Word editing a doc and no web browsers are loaded, you won't suddenly
see a popup notifying you about a Flash update). Since the RunOnce key
is used to run a program to complete an installation, perhaps you
had/have an aborted, incomplete, or corrupt installation of the Flash
Player or malware pretending to be something else. After a reboot
completes (and an install completes that required a reboot), the RunOnce
key should get emptied. Windows will cache the command line (the data
item's value), delete the data item under the RunOnce key, and then run
the command, so once you reboot and login then Windows cleans out the
RunOnce key. After all, whatever is there is supposed to run only
once, not on every login.

Run and RunOnce Registry Keys
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...(v=vs.85).aspx

Because the commands listed under RunOnce are to complete an action
started in a prior Windows session, like completing an install or major
reconfiguration, the items are executed synchronously (in the order they
are listed) rather than asynchronously (all items started concurrently)
as for the Run key. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179365

While some programs rely on the PendingFileRename registry key to delete
files on a subsequent reboot (because they were inuse at the time of the
install or patch), some will use the RunOnce key to run their cleanup
utility after the next reboot. See:

http://delphi.about.com/cs/adptips19...ltip0799_3.htm

I do have Flash Player installed (latest version) but not Adobe Reader
or their ADM (Adobe Download Manager). My RunOnce keys are empty. They
should be because Windows deletes whatever is there when you next boot
Windows or after you login.