I’ve been trying to build an automated install of Macromedia Shockwave Player 10 for the past week or so without the success I need. The ability to script the Windows Installer (MSI) version works, but when pushed through Microsoft’s Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS), it fails. The failure is because the Shockwave MSI package requires a user profile to write some files to, and SMS uses the SYSTEM account to install distributed software – the SYSTEM account does not have a user profile, so the folders the Shockwave MSI package is looking for do not exist, and the install fails.

Perversly, Macromedia Flash Player 8 MSI package works fine through SMS, so its not like Macromedia doesn’t know how to build the package correctly. There’s even a thread on the Macromeda support forum which explicitly details the issue, but Macromedia has not responded to anyone (other than a forum moderator) to correc the problem.

Macromedia has great products, but need to support corporate customers better for mass automated deployments.