Adobe Photoshop Elements and Network Homes

If you are using Network Home Redirector  to redirect items that don't work so well with Network Homes on an OSX Server and you are using Adobe Photoshop Elements, you will have an issue with the Adobe Bridge software.

If you are using NHR and Elements (at least I have seen this on version 6 and 8) then Adobe Bridge will not launch.  This is because the /Users/~/Library/Application Support/Adobe folder is redirected to tmp because Adobe Reader 9 doesn't work with Network Homes.  Adobe Reader just won't launch, so that Adobe folder needs to be redirected.  However, if the Adobe folder is redirected then Adobe Bridge doesn't work.  

Solution:  I don't really have one, in my environment only mobile users (with an account on the local workstation that syncs to the server) uses Adobe Photoshop Elements, so I don't redirect the ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe folder.  But, at least you will know where to look for the problem with Adobe Bridge.  

This was verified with client OS 10.5.7, 10.5.8, 10.6.1 and 10.6.2.  Also with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and 8 for the mac.  

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or 8 for the Mac not working

Problems displayed:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 won't open any files.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 will launch the first time after installation but force quits every other time.

Cause of Problem:

• If AVerVision is installed to support the AVerVision Document cameras, then these two version of Adobe are affected.

Remove AverVision on the computer.  Delete these three files: 

• /Macintosh HD/Applications/AVerVision 2 
  
• /Macintosh HD/Library/QuickTime/AVerVDig.component 
  
• /Macintosh HD/Library/Image Capture/TWAIN Data Sources/AVerVision.ds 
  
• /Macintosh HD/Users/The user that is going to use the program/Library/Application Support/Adobe 
  

NETA 2009 Ask the Mac Expert

Below are the documents that were referenced during NETA 2009's Ask the Mac Experts session:

• AFP Server Preferences
• Troubleshooting Portable Home Directories
  • Troubleshooting Mobile Accounts logging in or disappearing from the login window.
  • Troubleshooting Syncing issues.
• DeployStudio
  • DeployStudio Local Imaging from External Device Configuration of software.
  • DeployStudio Locally Creating an Image
  • DeployStudio Locally Deploying an Image
• Disk Utility
  • Disk Utility Creating an Image
  • Disk Utility Deploying an Image

10.5 Client Removing Computer Plist

Run this command if:

The client that is bound to and OSX server (via Directory Utility).

The computer is in a computer group on the server.

The computer is suppose to receive preferences from this computer group.  

Example, you are controlling the login window to show the name of the company or school.  If the computer isn't showing this information and the computer is in the computer group, then run the following command.  

rm -rf /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/computers/

  (this removes the plist that is affecting the computer)

shutdown -r now 

  (this will just restart the computer)

These commands can be run via the Unix command option in Apple's Remote Desktop.

Office 2008, stopping the setup assistant for each user.

This solution is meant for large deployments of Microsoft Office 2008.  This solution is assuming that you are re-directing the office preference files for a user.  You would redirect these files if you were using Network Homes on an OSX server or you wanted to specify settings for users with Mobile Accounts.  

If you want to stop Setup Assistant from running each time a user logs in....I had that too, really annoying.  If you check out the ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist you will see an entry for Completing the SetupAssistant.  I am now pushing this plist file out to all users, via WorkGroup Manager so they are not asked for the setup assistant anymore.  It works great now....

If you are wondering how I am browsing my plists for freely I am using a program called PlistEditPro.  I don't know how originally told me about this software, but it is AWESOME!!!  I am sending out more and more plist files to my users and this program really lets me edit and browse my plist files before I even get to WGM.  There is a free version of the software. http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/plisteditpro/

Office 2008 receiving blank pages when launching documents.

This solution is intended for large deployments of Office 2008.  For a home user, just throw away any of the files mentioned and they will be recreated the next time you launch any of the Office 2008 applications.  However, if you are managing hundreds/thousands of machines, this is how you can handle it.  

I use NHR to redirect....  (NHR can be downloaded from: http://jochsner.dyndns.org/scripts/NHR.html)

~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data

I use WorkGroup Manager to control....
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist


Even with doing these redirects I had a few users with this blank page problem.  I went into the ~/Library/Preferences folder and removed any com.microsoft preference (there were about ten of them from when the user used Office 2004f) and the com.Office preference file.

When I logged out and logged back in again, I haven't had the problem again on the user.

Reason to start this blog....

Apple's product line changes so rapidly, that technical resources are many times slow to follow, if at all.  Due to this fact, I have been getting most of my technical advice from other users in the field.  I have started this blog in order to communicate and share my experiences with Apple's products, specifically client and server within a K-12 environment.  

During the month of June of this year, I converted 28 servers from OS 10.4 to OS 10.5.  I have been testing for this conversion since November 2007 when I received my copies of Leopard from Apple.  In fact, I presented a hands-on session at MacWorld 2008 in January on OSX Leopard Server for Education.  Of course, all goes well during testing.  In the real world, I have 1 master and 25 replicas, the other servers are stand alone serving different purposes.  I can test one master and one replica in a test environment, but I was not able to test the load with all 25 replicas.  

From here on out I would like to document what my experiences were with the conversion from 10.4 to 10.5.  I will also be technically committing on other issues or items that I address from here on out.