Adobe Reader/DC Update (Feb. 9, 2021) drops error 1722 in Windows

[German]German blog reader Martin E. alerted me last night to a problem with yesterday's Adobe Reader/Acrobat DC security update. There are massive installation problems on Windows with the Adobe Reader /Acrobat DC security update dated February 9, 2021 (the setup ends with Error 1722). It probably affects systems when no user is logged in to the system, as I saw during a quick research. Root cause is a new UWP app from Adobe, but there is a workaround.

Yesterday I had reported about Adobe's security update for Reader/Acrobat DC in the German blog post Adobe Reader/Acrobat: Wichtiges Sicherheitsupdate verfügbar (9.2.2021). Adobe has published a Security Bulletin APSB21-09 with details. Since I don't use the products, I wasn't able to test anything.

Users reports install error 1722

German blog reader Martin E. contacted me yesterday by mail, reporting serious install issues with that update (thanks for that). He wrote:

We downloaded here (Continous Track).

21.001.20135 Planned update, Feb 09, 2021 — Release Notes for Acrobat DC Products (adobe.com)

And here is the "MUI" MSP:

This "crashed" in our SYSTEM without a logged in user.

In other words, Martin got an installation error on his systems when installing the window update for Adobe Reader, which ends in a crash. The problem only occurs when no user is logged in. Martin wrote in another mail that he searched the internet for:

RdrServicesUpdater.exe, command: 21.001.20135 20.013.20074.0

but then came across the forum posts linked here in the article.

German blog reader Thomas directed me within this comment to a discussion within German forum administrator.de. The update fails during installation with an error 1722:

Product: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC MUI — Error 1722.There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action InstallWebResources, location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroCEF\RdrServicesUpdater.exe, command: 21.001.20135 20.013.20074.0
Product: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC MUI — Configuration failed.

The user tried to uninstall the previous version and then reinstall the package, but ends up with a DLL error:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Esl\AiodLite.dll

because the module is not found. Meanwhile, in the Adobe Community, there is this thread where more users confirm the bug. Blog reader Thomas E. emailed me this morning and referred to the post Error 1722 after installing Adobe Reader DC Update… – Adobe Support Community – 11821190, where somebody wrote:

Error 1722 after installing Adobe Reader DC Update 21.001.20135

Trying to distribute the  Adobe Reader DC Update 21.001.20135 to a larger group of machines,

by means of SCCM (but also manually donwloaded and installed)

I receive the following error message:

"Product: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC MUI — Error 1722.There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action InstallWebResources, location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroCEF\RdrServicesUpdater.exe, command: 21.001.20135 20.013.20074.0"

These problems are also confirmed by third parties there. One user writes that the installer of the Adobe Acrobat Reader 2020 MUI update works for him. In a post, another user confirms that it affects both Acrobat Reader and Acrobat DC Pro on Windows.

Confirmed that this issue is not limited to Reader and occurs on Acrobat DC Pro using this new update.
Tested on:
– Windows 10 1909 and 20H2 Enterprise, both existing and clean installs of the operating system
– Visual C++ 2013 versions 12.0.30501, 12.0.40060, and 12.0.40664, including no version of Visual C++ 2013 previously installed
– Existing and clean installs of Acrobat DC Pro
– Utilizing SYSTEM or administrator accounts

As others have mentioned, machines with at least one interactive logon will install the update successfully either the first or second installation attempt.

The help posted by Adobe in the forums for error 1722  is not very helpful, as users write. There seems to be only one workaround to circumvent the problem: Make sure that a user is logged in to the client when the update is rolled out (e.g. via WSUS or SCCM).

There is a root cause and a workaround: omit UWP app

Martin E. has send me a 3rd mail outlining the root case and a workaround, a user has postet within this Adobe forum thread:

After an analysis of the error message, update install log and msi/mst, the following command line worked for us (workaround): msiexec / p "AcroRdrDCUpd2100120135_MUI.msp" INSTALLUWPAPP=NO / qb-!

This will not install the UWP App Adobe Acrobat Notification Client where the error seems to occur.

More information about the UWP App Adobe Acrobat Notification Client can be found here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/what-is-quot-notification-manager-for-acrobat-reader-q…

Not sure, but it looks like that an internet connection is needed for this part to install. In our environment only 'normal' users have an internet connection, and installation of the update is not done via a normal user account but via the System account (SCCM).

So the new Adobe Acrobat Notification Client, shipped als a UWP app is the root cause for the error. Use the install command:

msiexec / p "AcroRdrDCUpd2100120135_MUI.msp" INSTALLUWPAPP=NO / qb-! DISABLE_NOTIFICATIONS=1

to exclude the UWP app Adobe Acrobat Notification Client from installation should avoid the error 1722.