Entourage Won’t Update Calendars

Most Windows users have learned the hard way not to update more than they have to. After all, you never know what the newest fix might break. But when Microsoft issued the Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.3 Update, including "fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer's memory", that sure sounded to Mac users like an update they shouldn't wait on.

And they were right. Sort of. The update fixed a long-standing, cross-platform, critical bug that allowed malicious Excel files to execute code on a victim's machine.

Unfortunately, it also prevented Office 2008 users with both POP and Exchange email accounts from updating, or responding to, shared meeting invitations. This may not be a common configuration among stand-alone Office for Mac users, but it's the most common setup for Macintosh users in corporate settings.

The good news is, the problem was fixed just two weeks later. The bad news is that because the update isn't considered "critical", many Office for Mac users still can't participate in the scheduling of meetings, appointments, and holiday parties. If you haven't run the Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.4 Update, it's worth doing so immediately.

Uninstall Adobe Creative Suite

If your job is to administer Macintosh computers, odds are that much of your time is spent working with Adobe's Creative Suite. And while many have been tempted to uninstall Adobe products out of frustration, removing Creative Suite entirely can be an important (and difficult) step to effective troubleshooting or a clean upgrade.

Uninstalling Adobe CS2:

The only way to completely remove Creative Suite 2 from a system is do so manually, using the list of CS2 files posted at Adobe's own support site. Unless you specifically need CS2 for legacy work, it's best to remove it completely before installing CS3 or CS4, as having multiple versions can corrupt preference files and make the applications behave erratically.

Uninstalling Adobe CS3:

Loading CS3, on the other hand, isn't always as easy as following a checklist. The installer can become convinced that some or all of the suite is already present, even when there isn't any usable software available. For this very reason, Adobe has a script to uninstall the Photoshop CS3 beta, the non-bundled versions of Acrobat 8, or even just a previous CS3 install that somehow went wrong.

CS3Clean, once double-clicked, runs in the Terminal to remove every application, file, preference, and driver that might be preventing a fresh installation. The script offers two official "levels" of cleaning, the first removing everything *but* Acrobat 8, the second removing all CS3-associated files, plus a mysterious third option which isn't listed (or explained) but is often recommended by Adobe's phone support representatives, and a secret fourth which removes *all* Adobe and Macromedia software.

The script also uninstalls CS3 in about 10% of the time the programs actually take to install initially. That means that rather than installing CS3 individually on the machines that require it, you can often save time by including Creative Suite in company-wide disk images, then removing it on the workstations where it isn't needed.

Uninstalling Adobe CS4:

With the launch of CS4 this week, Adobe released the Creative Suite Cleanup application, a graphical tool to remove all traces of Creative Suite 3 or 4. Use the pull-down menu to select your version of Creative Suite, then highlight the components you want uninstalled at hit the "Cleanup" button. If you're prompted to try uninstalling the product instead, click the "Cleanup" button again to remove all your Creative Suite components by brute force.

With these tools you can eliminate any recent version of Creative Suite, allowing you to install the newest version (or just reinstall your existing software) trouble-free.

Recommended Reading: If you're considering a full uninstall procedure to merely address a licensing issue, check out how to reserialize Creative Suite instead at the CreativeTechs QuickTips blog.

CS3 Won’t Save To 10.5.3 Server

Despite Apple's encouragement to install OS upgrades as soon as they're released, most systems administrators test updates for a couple of weeks to see if any obvious or significant issues occur in their environment. It's been two weeks since Apple released Leopard 10.5.3, and while the update fixes a laundry list of problems (including Active Directory, AFP, iCal, Time Machine, and SMB issues), it breaks one simple feature that most Mac users simply can't live without: With 10.5.3 on client or server machine, some Adobe CS3 applications (primarily Photoshop, but occasionally InDesign) can no longer save to network shares.

It's hard to tell who to blame for this disaster, if blame is important to you. The fact that saving documents to the server worked just fine in 10.5.2 (and that multiple sources have reported that the functionality returns in 10.5.4) makes Apple look like the bad guy. On the other hand, Adobe has very publicly resisted modernizing portions of its underlying application code, and their antiquated position of not officially supporting direct server usage is bewildering to anyone computing in the 21st century.

The obvious solution is to avoid installing 10.5.3 at all (or roll back to 10.5.2 if you've kept a Time Machine backup of your system volume) until the problem is solved. The immediate (and far-less obvious answer) is to always use the "Save As" option, which continues to work perfectly on servers of all types.

Update: On June 30th, Apple released their 10.5.4 update. Among it's improvements, they list "Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server".

Recommended Reading: The normally-reasonable John Nack (Senior Product Manager, Adobe Photoshop) first reported issues saving CS3 files to 10.5.3 servers in his otherwise entertaining blog. For those with strong stomachs, some very angry commentary can be found on Apple's own discussion boards.

Acrobat 8 Crashes On Launch

Although Mac OS X has excellent built-in PDF support, there are some jobs that only Adobe's Acrobat can do. The ability to combine existing documents, create editable forms, and encrypt sensitive data all make Acrobat an indispensable tool. It's too bad, then, that the application has such a checkered history when it comes to stability. Acrobat 8 Professional, for instance, often crashes right out of the box. If it's doing so in your environment, there are several ways to get things running smoothly again.

There's a known issue in Acrobat 8 where corrupt or improperly-permissioned support files can cause the application to quit without warning. The problem centers around Adobe's Updater plugin, which by default checks for software patches when Acrobat first starts and causes the program to crash. Armed with this knowledge, it's easy to choose a solution appropriate for your environment.

The simplest method of dealing with this is to disable the plugin by selecting Acrobat in the Finder, choosing "Get Info" from the "File" menu, and unchecking the "Updater.acroplugin" box in the "Plugins" section of the Info pane. This method will prevent Acrobat from quitting unexpectedly, and is simple enough to walk users through over the phone or email. Unfortunately, it doesn't address the underlying issue.

The next approach is to replace the Updater plugin entirely. Adobe offers a fix for the Updater Plugin [963 KB]. To install the new plugin, right-click Acrobat 8 and choose "Show Package Contents", then open the "Contents" folder and place the new file in the "Plugins" directory. Though the publisher notes this doesn't work in every case, it allows Acrobat to run properly in most environments with the auto-update mechanism.

Finally, in most large environments, the best solution is to remove the offending plugin entirely. To do this, once again right-click Acrobat 8 and choose "Show Package Contents", this time going into the Plugins folder and removing the file named "Updater.acroplugin". This not only returns Acrobat 8 to full functionality, but prevents future issues that might be caused by unscheduled or user-initiated updates.

Recommended Reading: If you're looking for greater control of the update process, Adobe offers patches for manual download, testing, and installation at its Acrobat for Macintosh support page. If you're looking for more information on this issue, take a look at the Adobe Product Forums or the Acrobat for Macintosh list at Google Groups.

Retrieve Keychain Passwords

With the ability to store and encrypt any password on Macintosh systems, the Keychain can be a mixed blessing. It's easy for users to save time and effort with a single sign-on system for email, website, and file sharing access. It's equally easy to lose track of passwords that, thanks to a secure and convenient alternative, people seldom type themselves. Most users know the pain of an important but forgotten password. Next time it happens, there's a painless way to save their day.

In the Utilities folder you'll find the often-overlooked Keychain Access. Open it, and scroll down the main window to find the password item you need. If a user has multiple keychains, you may have to search more than one, but you can skip those named "System" and "System Roots" in Leopard (as well as "X509Anchors" and "X509Certificate" in Tiger). Select "Get Info" from the file menu to see the entry details, then click on the "Show password" button and enter the owner's main keychain password.

If your users can't rescue an essential password from their memories, this approach can retrieve it from the OS X Keychain instead.

Recommended Reading: Giles Turnbull has an extensive overview of Keychain Access available at the extensive O'Reilly MacDevCenter.