After reviewing the cs3 deployment guide (http://www.adobe.com/support/deployment/cs3_deployment.pdf) I decided to try a remote install of cs3 photoshop on a windows 7 computer. The installer log told me that the os version was incompatible. I found a post on a message board which recommened the following:
“In .\payloads\AdobeIllustrator13en_US and .\payloads\AdobePhotoshop10en_US there are xml files with proxy in the name. At the bottom of each file is a section which refers to Windows XP, Windows Vista and a couple of others, but it doesn’t include Windows 7 (it wasn’t about) and therefore the silent install fails because it reckons the operating system isn’t acceptable.
I did briefly try modifying the section the include Windows 7, but I rapidly got bored at guessing and just deleted the entire from both xml files.”
It appears remote installs were blocked by remotely by the uac panel. I’ll need to run a script to disable/enable it for the installs.