In customization Wiz 9 how to keep old versions of PRO?

Maddog - Unfortunately there is no fast nor easy way to differentiate between Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional - nor Acrobat Pro Ex. The reason for this has to do with product design. Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Pro* and Pro Extended* are actually the same product.

* Note: This purposefully discounts the 'add-on' tools such as LiveCycle Forms Designer ES and the 3D tools. In this case I am only discussing the core Acrobat product.

The fundamental differences between Standard and Pro has to do with with which plug-ins shipped with each of the products. The names and forms that the plug-ins have changed from version to version, so the directory contents will not be much help.

However, if you think you can just pull the plugins from Pro and populate Standard - it's not going to work. There is a security mechanism between the license key, Acrobat.Exe and its internal API initiator mechanism and an Adobe baked-in certificate stored in the Adobe provided plug-ins. If the three don't work out, the API initiator will fail for non-certified plug-ins.

To be honest, the best methods to take care of this are:
1) Dilligent record keeping through your license management tool(s) - even it it's a spreadsheet.
2) Add a product reg key during deployment. A trick we use to later double check if an installation is valid, product version info, etc. We actively created a sub-hive in the registry HKLM\Software\>company info<\>software distribution tool<\Applications\>app name<Under App Name we can add various key:value pairs such as Installation Date, Version, Vendor, Full Product Name, Installation Hash, etc.

While these may not help you immediately, they may help you with a project to implement them as a near-mid-term cost saving measure.

Sorry I couldn't provide you with the answer you were looking for, but maybe an idea on how to move out of the morass.

Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Sincerely,
Doug