Hello,
I want to use Group Policy to automatically run a program (batch script) that does the following:
1. Check if program exists
2. If program does not exist, install the program (run executable, create service and start it)
No user input is required (program automatically installs silently)
The only limitation is it might require administrator level account to install
The file to complete the installation is a batch file.
I understand that I can possibly accomplish this by putting the batch file into "startup" ->Computer Configuration->Policies->windows settings->scripts-startup. However, my understanding is that the server would have to be rebooted to launch the script. I do not want to do so as the installation does not require a reboot and the destination servers are not supposed to be rebooted
Someone also suggested that perhaps I can use run once of the registry, but I am not certain if this would work.
Any suggestions on how to accomplish my goal?
Thanks in advance.
2. An MSI is not the way to go because the batch file accesses a share and executes the program. The sequence of steps are:
a. Check if program is installed. If installed abort
b. Connect to windows share and run installation program
c. start program service
d. end
The advantage of connecting to a share is I can update the program on the fly without modifying anything else. In any case, this is much easier than an MSI (imo).