Appendix A: Identifying Installs

Identification methods

Basics:

  • Use SWIDs: Acrobat Professional and Standard are delivered in a single installer and therefore have identical SWIDs. To identify your install, use a combination of the serial number and the LEID contained in the SWID file. Use this Windows script to automatically get the SWID details.

  • Do NOT use GUIDs: Because they share a single installer, Pro and Standard GUIDs are identical. Using GUIDs to identify the install has been unsupported since 11.x.

  • 64-bit: The 64-bit installers (post Feb 9, 2021) are ID’d via the user interface. If the product is 64-bit, the string “64-bit” appears in the app title bar, under Help > About, and in the Windows Add/Remove programs UI.

64-bit Acrobat Pro vs. Standard

Both the LEID & SWID tag identification methods are not applicable to the Acrobat 64-bit unified installer iniitially released in Feb. of 2021. To distinguish between Standard and Pro installations, ID the install via the registry:

#. Go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\AVEntitlement\iEntitlementLevel # ID the install:

  • 300: Acrobat Pro

  • 200: Acrobat Standard

Licensing identifiers (LEID)

Licensing identifiers (LEID) provide a unique way to identify most of Adobe’s licensed products. You will need to know a product’s LEID in the following workflows:

  • Installing a serialized product via a package created with AAMEE (typically CS bundled products).

  • Using the APTEE tool to perform licensing and activation tasks.

Product LEIDs:

  • Continuous Track: V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Win-GM

  • Classic Track 2017: V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM

  • Classic Track 2015: V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM

  • Classic Track 2020: V7{}AcrobatESR-20-Win-GM

Note

Once an ETLA serial is provided, the LEID changes for unserialized commands. For both tracks, it becomes V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM (on Windows) and V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Mac-GM (on Macintosh). For example, you would use the “ESR” LEID version to initially serialize, and you would use the “ETLA” version to deactivate or perform any other action with the prtk utility.

Temporary “bridge” LEIDs

To facilitate migration to named user licensing, Adobe issued bridge serial numbers for some Acrobat 2015 users. These serial numbers are associated with different LEIDs. If you are using these bridge serials, you must use the correct LEID when unserializing prior to migrating to a new serial via the PRTK.

  • V7 {} AcrobatStd-Beta12-Win-GM

  • V7 {} AcrobatPro-Beta12-Win-GM

Server LEIDs

There are also server LEIDs for ETLA serials on version 12.1. While ETLA serials on a server are serialized using any of the product LEIDs for Acrobat, Classic 2015, or Classic 201, deserialization requires using the server LEIDs below:

Windows LEID : V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM Mac LEID : V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Mac-GM

Software identification tags (SWID)

Software identification tags (SWIDs) help IT organizations manage software assets by providing the ability to identify the license state of installed software. SWIDs also provide a method for distinguishing between subscription (cloud) and boxed installs.

Note

For an overview of Adobe’s usage of ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 software identification tags in Acrobat and CS products, see the Software Tag document.

SWID files are located under ProgramData. For example:

C:\ProgramData\regid.1986-12.com.adobe\regid.1986-12.com.adobe_AcrobatPro-AS1-Win-GM-MUL.swidtag

The tag file name is of the format: <regid>_<product_title>-<unique_software_identifier>.swidtag. The values are determined as follows:

  • <regid>: regid.1986-12.com.adobe is Adobe’s regid.

  • <product_title>: The product name which is the same as the value of <product> in the tag file.

  • <unique_software_identifier>: A combination of the product licensing identifier and licensed locale which is the same as the value of <softwareID/unique_id> in the tag file. Locale information is applicable only for products that are not installed in the trial mode.

SWID location

The SWID file resides in C:\ProgramData\regid.1986-12.com.adobe\<filename>.swidtag

List of SWIDs

SWID fields

License type

Serial #

Product

LeID

Status

Channel type

License type

Acrobat ETLA - std

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat ETLA -pro

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat Vol – std

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat Vol – pro

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat ret – std

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

RETAIL

RETAIL

Acrobat Ret –pro

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

RETAIL

RETAIL

Acrobat Std subscription

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Acrobat pro subscription

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Acrobat Std upgrade serial

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

RETAIL

RETAIL

Acrobat Pro upgrade serial

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-en_US

activated

RETAIL

RETAIL

Acrobat offline - prov.xml std

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat offline - prov.xml pro

9707xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatETLA-12-Win-GM-MUL

serialized

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

Acrobat offline type1 - std

9101xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM-MUL

serialized

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat XI Retail – Pro

9707xxxxx

Acrobat XI Pro

V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

Acrobat XI Subscription Pro

9707xxxxx

Acrobat XI Pro

V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

serialized

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Acrobat XI Volume Pro

9707xxxxx

Acrobat XI Pro

V6{}AcrobatPro-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat XI Retail Standard

9101xxxxx

Acrobat XI Standard

V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

Acrobat XI Volume Standard

9101xxxxx

Acrobat XI Standard

V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

VOLUME

VOLUME

Acrobat XI Subscription Standard

9101xxxxx

Acrobat XI Standard

V6{}AcrobatStd-AS2-Win-GM-MUL

activated

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Acrobat - CC Full Subscription (Type2)

9096xxxxx

Adobe Acrobat

V7{}CreativeCloudEnt-1.0-Win-GM-MUL

activated

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Acrobat Pro XI - CC Full Subscription (Type 2)

9096xxxxx

Acrobat XI Pro

V7{}CreativeCloudEnt-1.0-Win-GM-MUL

activated

SUBSCRIPTION

RETAIL

Example SWID file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<swid:software_identification_tag xsi:schemaLocation="https://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2008/schema.xsd software_identification_tag.xsd"
  xmlns:swid="https://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2008/schema.xsd" xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<!--Mandatory Identity elements -->
<swid:entitlement_required_indicator>true</swid:entitlement_required_indicator>
<swid:product_title>Acrobat X Pro</swid:product_title>
<swid:product_version>
 <swid:name>10.0</swid:name>
 <swid:numeric>
  <swid:major>10</swid:major>
  <swid:minor>0</swid:minor>
  <swid:build>0</swid:build>
  <swid:review>0</swid:review>
 </swid:numeric>
</swid:product_version>
<swid:software_creator>
 <swid:name>Adobe Inc.</swid:name>
 <swid:regid>regid.1986-12.com.adobe</swid:regid>
</swid:software_creator>
<swid:software_licensor>
 <swid:name>Adobe Inc.</swid:name>
 <swid:regid>regid.1986-12.com.adobe</swid:regid>
</swid:software_licensor>
<swid:software_id>
 <swid:unique_id>AcrobatPro-AS1-Win-GM-MUL</swid:unique_id>
 <swid:tag_creator_regid>regid.1986-12.com.adobe</swid:tag_creator_regid>
</swid:software_id>

<swid:tag_creator>
 <swid:name>Adobe Inc.</swid:name>
 <swid:regid>regid.1986-12.com.adobe</swid:regid>
</swid:tag_creator>
<!--Optional Identity elements -->
<swid:license_linkage>
 <swid:activation_status>unlicensed</swid:activation_status>
 <swid:channel_type>VOLUME</swid:channel_type>
 <swid:customer_type>VOLUME</swid:customer_type>
</swid:license_linkage>
<swid:serial_number>970787034620329571838915</swid:serial_number>
</swid:software_identification_tag>