How do you build PCs / install apps & updates
I am spending way too much time installing apps on new PCs for workgroups. Things like Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat reader, java, set the dns servers to open dns, all the windows updates, etc.? I know there's the dell decrapifier to take apps away, but it seems someone's worked out a silent install script to INSTALL these common apps and settings.
It's getting tiring going to each web page / make a check list of these things.
thanks!
It's getting tiring going to each web page / make a check list of these things.
thanks!
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
kurt you weree typing as I was. I was thinking using true image to clone the disk and then there's a sysinternals app to change the sid? different ways to get to the same point? Or what other issues does sysprep deal?
I totally agree that cloning is the classier way. But it seems for onesies / twosie installs, that you'll spend as much time on it as I am now, lining up the machines and load this, got o next mahine, load it again, next machine, load that app.... repeat process at machine 1
I totally agree that cloning is the classier way. But it seems for onesies / twosie installs, that you'll spend as much time on it as I am now, lining up the machines and load this, got o next mahine, load it again, next machine, load that app.... repeat process at machine 1
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
If your talking one or two computers at a time that are very different then the others then you would probably be best off using scripts or batch files in combination with MSI installer file switches (where applicable).
Other options I can think of would be setting up group policies to deploy the apps automatically by using the GPMC (providing your in a windows 2003 AD enviroment) if not you can still do it but it's a bit more complex
Getting a zenworks imaging server which supports add on images, or getting something like admin studio and create your own custom installs by having it monitor the applications you are installing and the modifications made.
Other options I can think of would be setting up group policies to deploy the apps automatically by using the GPMC (providing your in a windows 2003 AD enviroment) if not you can still do it but it's a bit more complex
Getting a zenworks imaging server which supports add on images, or getting something like admin studio and create your own custom installs by having it monitor the applications you are installing and the modifications made.
ASKER
brian - thanks for the details! What do ou do when it's a small business (how many PCs on your network that you have this in place?) and 2 machines have quickbooks, 1 has some other apps, 2 others don't have any, etc... (almost each machine has their own set of apps). make an image of a machine with everything and manually uninstall or they just ahve apps that they don't need (although you get into licensing - you haev licenses to install application 1 on < all the machines. Uninstall them? And how do you deal with office apps when you are using OEM or retail software and each machine has a different key?
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Yes you would get into licensing issues if you are using retail / OEM Licenses you would have to have volume licenses. Especially when it comes to the operating system and microsoft office. You'll fail windows activation if it registers the same Key too many times to different hardware in addition you would be in violation of the license agreement.
We have about 1,400 pc's but we have some that just have one off apps those ones we setup and push out through zenworks (similar to an AD push)
How many PC's total are in your organization ? If you have at least 10 or more you would probably be better off having pc's in the future with no office installed on them and no Operating System that way you can go to microsoft volume licensing and also get software assurance with it so you get the newest version of the office suite or whatever you have volume licensing and software assurance for.
There are a couple of ways to approach the apps
but what has to be taken into consideration
1. depends on licensing (but you do not want to waste licenses either)
2. depends on usage
I wouldn't install an app across the board unless I had proper licensing for it and it was like a freeware type license. If I have to pay for licensing there is no sense in paying for unused licenses.
Your best bet would be probably be approached from a combination of things
1. if all users use microsoft office get a volume license and then install it on the server and create an OU to automatically install it when the pc's join the domain
2. If you have specific apps that's licenses do not prohibit being installed from a server share then you could also create OU's in AD to push them out too
3. For apps that have no real licensing restriction such as all computers needing flash, shockwave, quicktime etc... you can do one of 3 things
a. install all of the common apps in the image (providing you have a VLK for Windows) and then sysprep
b. Make a batch file or script that has a menu selection or just installs them all
c. Push them out through AD
4. For retail apps unfortunately the only workaround I see is one of two ways
a. hand installing them all
b. automating it but being able to change there license key (if stored in the registry) through a script once installed.
We have about 1,400 pc's but we have some that just have one off apps those ones we setup and push out through zenworks (similar to an AD push)
How many PC's total are in your organization ? If you have at least 10 or more you would probably be better off having pc's in the future with no office installed on them and no Operating System that way you can go to microsoft volume licensing and also get software assurance with it so you get the newest version of the office suite or whatever you have volume licensing and software assurance for.
There are a couple of ways to approach the apps
but what has to be taken into consideration
1. depends on licensing (but you do not want to waste licenses either)
2. depends on usage
I wouldn't install an app across the board unless I had proper licensing for it and it was like a freeware type license. If I have to pay for licensing there is no sense in paying for unused licenses.
Your best bet would be probably be approached from a combination of things
1. if all users use microsoft office get a volume license and then install it on the server and create an OU to automatically install it when the pc's join the domain
2. If you have specific apps that's licenses do not prohibit being installed from a server share then you could also create OU's in AD to push them out too
3. For apps that have no real licensing restriction such as all computers needing flash, shockwave, quicktime etc... you can do one of 3 things
a. install all of the common apps in the image (providing you have a VLK for Windows) and then sysprep
b. Make a batch file or script that has a menu selection or just installs them all
c. Push them out through AD
4. For retail apps unfortunately the only workaround I see is one of two ways
a. hand installing them all
b. automating it but being able to change there license key (if stored in the registry) through a script once installed.
ASKER
machines in the organization? I take care of loads of small businesses - typically smaller than 10 seats, usually workgroups. Part of the problem is that I don't know how to push out apps with AD. based on item 3 above, it seems like the image, even for the domain and to get java, acrobat, flash, shockwave, etc. installed is the way to go : (
I'm envisioning with the wide range of hardware and apps being an issue. You can't image a single drive machine and then reimage it into a hardware raid array (to windows, it looks like a single drive... but at boot time, it's not the same as a single drive (no raid) and the machine typically blue screens.
I'm envisioning with the wide range of hardware and apps being an issue. You can't image a single drive machine and then reimage it into a hardware raid array (to windows, it looks like a single drive... but at boot time, it's not the same as a single drive (no raid) and the machine typically blue screens.
The problem is with the windows licensing and product activation if you use a retail or OEM disk that Key that comes with those are only good per product. If you use this an image built from an OEM or Retail copy of windows and use it to image several machines after 30 days they will fail windows activation and go into reduced functionality mode it will also disable windows update and come up with a windows not valid pop up in the corner (not good).
As far as the raid array goes you can put that into your image as long as you sysprep it. It's more complex but basically you need to have the drivers in the image and also you need to run the command with the sysprep tool at the command prompt sysprep -bmsd this will build the mass storage device section you will have to do this on the raid computer and on each computer that is different then take each of these files and merge the mass storage device section into one with no repeats.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/16a9be2c-156d-45d7-8329-b9b23097b3b61033.mspx?mfr=true
see the article for information on sysprep and drivers and devices. The onyl caveat is if the image is of a drive partioned at 40GB and you load the image on an 80GB drive then the drive will be setup like a 40GB drive.
you can get a direct download that is distributable of flash but you have to fill out licensing info. but it costs nothing it's really a pain but if your constantly deploying flash it saves going to there website.
http://www.adobe.com/licensing/
you can get an offline download of java here
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
for example if you get an executable or msi you can go to the command prompt type the name of the app for example java.exe /?
if you put the /? at the end it will tell you the supported switches
such as below
so you could do something like this in a batch file in a folder called "apps" like below...
this would probably be your best bet for app deployment without active directory you could put this on a jump drive or even push it out or put it on cd. NOTE: (This is just an example batch file so there may be errors)
@ECHO OFF
:: Set default folder
SET SRC=C:\apps\
:MAINMENU choose option from the menu
CLS
ECHO.
ECHO. Install Spybot Seek and Destroy.....1
ECHO. Install Adaware SE Personal.........2
ECHO. Install SpywareBlaster............
ECHO. Install AVG Anti Spyware............4
EcHO. install CCleaner..................
ECHO. Install All Applications............6
ECHO. Quit......................
ECHO.
CHOICE /c:1234567 /n " Please Choose "
ECHO.
IF ERRORLEVEL 7 GOTO QUIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 6 GOTO ALLINSTALL
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO CCLEANER
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO AVGAS
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO SBLASTER
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO ADAWARE
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO SPYBOT
GOTO QUIT no further action
:SPYBOT
start /wait C:\apps\spybotsd\spybotsd1
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:ADAWARE
start /wait C:\apps\adaware\aawseperso
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:SBLASTER
start /wait C:\apps\sb\sb351silent.exe
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:AVGAS Install AVG Anti spyware only
start /wait C:\apps\avgas\avgas-setup-
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:CCLEANER
start /wait C:\apps\ccleaner\ccsetup13
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:ALLINSTALL Install all Antispyware Performance applications
start /wait C:\apps\spybotsd\spybotsd1
start /wait C:\apps\adaware\aawseperso
start /wait C:\apps\sb\sb351silent.exe
start /wait C:\apps\avgas\avgas-setup-
start /wait C:\apps\ccleaner\ccsetup13
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:QUIT No further action
ECHO. NO further action taken
GOTO EOF
:INSTALLFIN
ECHO. %TASK% - finished
pause
GOTO MAINMENU
:EOF (end-of-file)
HERE ARE THE SWITCHES THAT CAN BE USED WITH MOST .EXE's and MSI's if in doubt run the .exe from the command line with a /? switch after it. That is why you will see "verysilent" above instead of quiet.
Windows ® Installer. V 3.01.4000.1823
msiexec /Option <Required Parameter> [Optional Parameter]
Install Options
</package | /i> <Product.msi>
Installs or configures a product
/a <Product.msi>
Administrative install - Installs a product on the network
/j<u|m> <Product.msi> [/t <Transform List>] [/g <Language ID>]
Advertises a product - m to all users, u to current user
</uninstall | /x> <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Uninstalls the product
Display Options
/quiet
Quiet mode, no user interaction
/passive
Unattended mode - progress bar only
/q[n|b|r|f]
Sets user interface level
n - No UI
b - Basic UI
r - Reduced UI
f - Full UI (default)
/help
Help information
Restart Options
/norestart
Do not restart after the installation is complete
/promptrestart
Prompts the user for restart if necessary
/forcerestart
Always restart the computer after installation
Logging Options
/l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x
i - Status messages
w - Nonfatal warnings
e - All error messages
a - Start up of actions
r - Action-specific records
u - User requests
c - Initial UI parameters
m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information
o - Out-of-disk-space messages
p - Terminal properties
v - Verbose output
x - Extra debugging information
+ - Append to existing log file
! - Flush each line to the log
* - Log all information, except for v and x options
/log <LogFile>
Equivalent of /l* <LogFile>
Update Options
/update <Update1.msp>[;Update2.msp
Applies update(s)
/uninstall <PatchCodeGuid>[;Update2.m
Remove update(s) for a product
Repair Options
/f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Repairs a product
p - only if file is missing
o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)
e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed
d - if file is missing or a different version is installed
c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value
a - forces all files to be reinstalled
u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)
m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)
s - all existing shortcuts (default)
v - runs from source and recaches local package
Setting Public Properties
[PROPERTY=PropertyValue]
Consult the Windows ® Installer SDK for additional documentation on the
command line syntax.
Application deployment through AD
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Group-Policy-Deploy-Applications.html
deployment of java through AD limited to MSI, MST type files
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/5000011100.xml
However a better deployment is using GPMC which can deploy even .exe files
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/cc7627fa-1c88-4022-8842-8984efd8925d1033.mspx?mfr=true
Hope this helps
As far as the raid array goes you can put that into your image as long as you sysprep it. It's more complex but basically you need to have the drivers in the image and also you need to run the command with the sysprep tool at the command prompt sysprep -bmsd this will build the mass storage device section you will have to do this on the raid computer and on each computer that is different then take each of these files and merge the mass storage device section into one with no repeats.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/16a9be2c-156d-45d7-8329-b9b23097b3b61033.mspx?mfr=true
see the article for information on sysprep and drivers and devices. The onyl caveat is if the image is of a drive partioned at 40GB and you load the image on an 80GB drive then the drive will be setup like a 40GB drive.
you can get a direct download that is distributable of flash but you have to fill out licensing info. but it costs nothing it's really a pain but if your constantly deploying flash it saves going to there website.
http://www.adobe.com/licensing/
you can get an offline download of java here
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
for example if you get an executable or msi you can go to the command prompt type the name of the app for example java.exe /?
if you put the /? at the end it will tell you the supported switches
such as below
so you could do something like this in a batch file in a folder called "apps" like below...
this would probably be your best bet for app deployment without active directory you could put this on a jump drive or even push it out or put it on cd. NOTE: (This is just an example batch file so there may be errors)
@ECHO OFF
:: Set default folder
SET SRC=C:\apps\
:MAINMENU choose option from the menu
CLS
ECHO.
ECHO. Install Spybot Seek and Destroy.....1
ECHO. Install Adaware SE Personal.........2
ECHO. Install SpywareBlaster............
ECHO. Install AVG Anti Spyware............4
EcHO. install CCleaner..................
ECHO. Install All Applications............6
ECHO. Quit......................
ECHO.
CHOICE /c:1234567 /n " Please Choose "
ECHO.
IF ERRORLEVEL 7 GOTO QUIT
IF ERRORLEVEL 6 GOTO ALLINSTALL
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO CCLEANER
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO AVGAS
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO SBLASTER
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO ADAWARE
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO SPYBOT
GOTO QUIT no further action
:SPYBOT
start /wait C:\apps\spybotsd\spybotsd1
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:ADAWARE
start /wait C:\apps\adaware\aawseperso
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:SBLASTER
start /wait C:\apps\sb\sb351silent.exe
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:AVGAS Install AVG Anti spyware only
start /wait C:\apps\avgas\avgas-setup-
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:CCLEANER
start /wait C:\apps\ccleaner\ccsetup13
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:ALLINSTALL Install all Antispyware Performance applications
start /wait C:\apps\spybotsd\spybotsd1
start /wait C:\apps\adaware\aawseperso
start /wait C:\apps\sb\sb351silent.exe
start /wait C:\apps\avgas\avgas-setup-
start /wait C:\apps\ccleaner\ccsetup13
GOTO INSTALLFIN
:QUIT No further action
ECHO. NO further action taken
GOTO EOF
:INSTALLFIN
ECHO. %TASK% - finished
pause
GOTO MAINMENU
:EOF (end-of-file)
HERE ARE THE SWITCHES THAT CAN BE USED WITH MOST .EXE's and MSI's if in doubt run the .exe from the command line with a /? switch after it. That is why you will see "verysilent" above instead of quiet.
Windows ® Installer. V 3.01.4000.1823
msiexec /Option <Required Parameter> [Optional Parameter]
Install Options
</package | /i> <Product.msi>
Installs or configures a product
/a <Product.msi>
Administrative install - Installs a product on the network
/j<u|m> <Product.msi> [/t <Transform List>] [/g <Language ID>]
Advertises a product - m to all users, u to current user
</uninstall | /x> <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Uninstalls the product
Display Options
/quiet
Quiet mode, no user interaction
/passive
Unattended mode - progress bar only
/q[n|b|r|f]
Sets user interface level
n - No UI
b - Basic UI
r - Reduced UI
f - Full UI (default)
/help
Help information
Restart Options
/norestart
Do not restart after the installation is complete
/promptrestart
Prompts the user for restart if necessary
/forcerestart
Always restart the computer after installation
Logging Options
/l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x
i - Status messages
w - Nonfatal warnings
e - All error messages
a - Start up of actions
r - Action-specific records
u - User requests
c - Initial UI parameters
m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information
o - Out-of-disk-space messages
p - Terminal properties
v - Verbose output
x - Extra debugging information
+ - Append to existing log file
! - Flush each line to the log
* - Log all information, except for v and x options
/log <LogFile>
Equivalent of /l* <LogFile>
Update Options
/update <Update1.msp>[;Update2.msp
Applies update(s)
/uninstall <PatchCodeGuid>[;Update2.m
Remove update(s) for a product
Repair Options
/f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Repairs a product
p - only if file is missing
o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)
e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed
d - if file is missing or a different version is installed
c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value
a - forces all files to be reinstalled
u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)
m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)
s - all existing shortcuts (default)
v - runs from source and recaches local package
Setting Public Properties
[PROPERTY=PropertyValue]
Consult the Windows ® Installer SDK for additional documentation on the
command line syntax.
Application deployment through AD
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Group-Policy-Deploy-Applications.html
deployment of java through AD limited to MSI, MST type files
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/5000011100.xml
However a better deployment is using GPMC which can deploy even .exe files
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/cc7627fa-1c88-4022-8842-8984efd8925d1033.mspx?mfr=true
Hope this helps
You could also use those same commands shown to uninstall apps through a batch file (a decrudding script) if you will just find the executables and then call there uninstaller.
ASKER
also, so you image the drive. within a short term, things are out of date and you spend as much time updating the app as you would just to install the latest app? ! which is manual? I am trying to save tech newbies from having too many messages, at least at the start.