Adobe Trial edition reported rather than full edition (Snow Software Recognition)

Title

Issue

Snow is reporting that the user has the trial edition when they are actually using a full edition of an Adobe product.

Steps to reproduce

The SWID tag file can be viewed in Notepad or any XML editor software.

Below is a sample Adobe SWID tag 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">

<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>

<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>

There are key tags in this file that are read by Snow to identify the edition. When the channel_type value (towards the bottom of the file ) is TRIAL then the Trial edition will be shown. Any of the other 3 values below will report as a full edition.
VOLUME, SUBSCRIPTION, RETAIL

Note that there are other fields in the SWID tag file that are also used for recognition such as the product title, publisher, major and minor versions. The purpose of this document is only to address issues with the Trial edition being reported.

Solution

The following has resolved the issue:

Latest Snow Agent for Windows with Adobe scan ps1 script (Inform Support when creating the request)
Snow Inventory Server version minimum of 6.5 version
Snow License Manager version at least 9.13.0

Additional reference:

Software identification tags (SWID tags) record unique information about an installed software application, including its name, edition, version, whether it is part of a bundle and more. SWID tags support software inventory and asset management initiatives. Publishers that participate in the use of SWID tags follow the international standard ISO/IEC 19770-2:2015.

SWID tag files are typically found in C:\ProgramData under a folder that is specific for each publisher. The SWID tag file is created when the application is installed. For Adobe products, the location is
C:\ProgramData\regid.1986-12.com.adobe\<filename>.swidtag

The following link provides an article written by Snow with more detail about what SWID tags are and why they are important:
https://www.snowsoftware.com/blog/2014/03/13/swid-tags-what-are-they-and-why-are-they-important

Link to Adobe web page:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AdminGuide/identify.html#software-identification-tags-swid

Cause

Snow makes use of the publisher’s SWID tag file stored in C:\ProgramData\regid.1986-12.com.adobe\<filename>.swidtag to assist in identifying the correct edition. This is often needed anytime a publisher uses the same executable file name for multiple editions.

For Adobe products, the SWID tag file is not changed after installation. So if the installation binaries for the Trial edition were used and then the user account was later registered for the full version, the SWID tag file will continue to show the Trial edition.

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Support Hub

Product

Snow Software Recognition Service

Solution Area

Technical Recognition

Deployment type

Cloud;On-premises;Service Provider Edition (SPE)

Visibility

Guest

URL Name

Adobe-Trial-edition-reported-rather-than-full-edition

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Case id: 00001065