Install Adobe Creative Cloud on Citrix Virtual Desktop
How to create a deployment package, install and configure Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop) on Citrix non-persistent Virtual Desktops
This example is for installing Adobe Creative Cloud 2022 (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop) on Citrix non-persistent virtual desktops running Windows 10 Enterprise 1909
Table of Contents
2. Uninstall previous versions of Adobe Creative Cloud
3. Install Adobe Creative Cloud using the deployment package
4. Disable Adobe Creative Cloud updates
5. Stop Adobe Creative Cloud from running at startup
6. Updating Adobe Creative Cloud
1. Create a deployment package
Create a deployment package from the Adobe Admin Console
Adobe Admin Console
https://adminconsole.adobe.com
Packages - Create a package
Choose your deployment method: Managed Package
Choose a Platform: Windows 64-bit
Selected Applications: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Choose Plugins: In this example, we are not installing any plugins
Click Next
Creative Cloud Desktop Options: Untick all the options except "Disable auto-update for end-users"
Untick "Enable remote update manager"
Package name: Adobe Creative Cloud
Build package
Download the package
2. Uninstall previous versions of Adobe Creative Cloud
On the master image Virtual Machine, uninstall Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop then, Creative Cloud
Illustrator Preferences: Yes, remove
Uninstall Complete: Close
Repeat the above steps to remove Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Creative Cloud
Reboot the master image VM after all the Adobe Creative Cloud applications have been removed
Check for and delete any Adobe Creative Cloud folders in these directories
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe
C:\Program Files\Adobe
3. Install Adobe Creative Cloud using the deployment package
Install the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud using the deployment package
On the master image VM, extract the zipped Creative cloud deployment package and run setup.exeC:\temp\Adobe Creative Cloud_en_US_WIN_64\Adobe Creative Cloud\Build\setup.exe
Open Adobe Creative Cloud after installing and sign-in with your Adobe ID
Update Creative Cloud if prompted
wait for the update to finish installing
Delete any desktop shortcuts that have been created in C:\Users\Public Desktop
Uninstall Adobe Genuine Service
Uninstall Notification Manager for Adobe Creative Cloud
Start Menu shortcut - Right click - Uninstall
4. Disable Adobe Creative Cloud updates
We will disable Adobe updates because users don't have the rights to install updates on non-persistent Virtual Desktops and will keep getting prompted for updates that they cant install.
Stop and disable these Adobe services:
Adobe Acrobat Update Service
AdobeUpdateService
Open Adobe Creative Cloud and sign in
File - Preferences
General - Settings
Launch Creative Cloud at login - disable
Always keep Creative Cloud up to date - disable
Edit Adobe preferences files
Copy these preferences files from your user local app data folder
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Adobe\OOBE\
com.adobe.acc.default.prefs
com.adobe.acc.container.default.prefs
Edit the files and make sure they contain these settings
com.adobe.acc.default.prefs<prefs><property key="launchAtLogin">false</property></prefs>
com.adobe.acc.container.default.prefs<prefs><property key="keepAppAlwaysUpToDate">OFF</property></prefs>
Create a group policy to copy these files to the users %localappdata% folder
Source file
\\file-share\Deploy\Citrix\Adobe\com.adobe.acc.container.default.prefs
Destination file
%localappdata%\Adobe\OOBE\com.adobe.acc.container.default.prefs
Source file
\\file-share\Deploy\Citrix\Adobe\com.adobe.acc.default.prefs
Destination file
%localappdata%\Adobe\OOBE\com.adobe.acc.default.prefs
User Configuration - Preferences - Windows Settings - Files
5. Stop Adobe Creative Cloud from running at startup
On Citrix virtual desktop Adobe Creative Cloud launches at startup and prompts to install updates
Installing updates requires admin rights which users don't have on the Virtual Desktops
Creative Cloud doesn't need to run at startup for any of the Adobe applications to work.
For example, when users launch Photoshop, they will be prompted to sign in to activate their license, and Photoshop works as usual. Creative Cloud is not needed.
Group Policy settings
Computer configuration - preferences - Windows settings - registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run32
Name: Adobe Creative Cloud
Type: REG_BINARY
Data: 030000009818FB164428D501
6. Updating Adobe Creative Cloud
To update Creative Cloud on the master image VM; uninstall old versions of the Adobe applications and Creative Cloud desktop, then re-install the new package.
Comments 6
This is a very useful, detailed description, best practice guide on how to achieve the Creative Cloud Installation on virtualized systems. Thanks to the author of this article – and that very much!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you found the article helpful
Awesome blog, I will totally script the hell out of it!
Please check my github repo, I have an Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat DC script that I think you will enjoy!
https://github.com/JonathanPitre/Apps/tree/master/Adobe
Hi, thanks for the feedback! I will definitely check out your GitHub repo!
Thanks for thisDo you have the guide for installing Adobe Acrobat DC through creative cloud on a Citrix environment ?
Hi John, you can use the Creative Cloud installer for Adobe Acrobat but I prefer to use PowerShell to install Acrobat on Citrix.
Take a look at this guide
https://techlabs.blog/categories/guides/install-adobe-acrobat-pro-dc-virtual-desktop-using-powershell