Conference decwet::windows-nt

5938.0. "Easier method of s/w installations (from WinNT magazine)" by axel.zko.dec.com::FOLEY (http://axel.zko.dec.com) Fri Apr 18 1997 11:48

Hi,

	**I purposely did not wrap some of the lines in this note
	to 80 columns to preserve the formatting.

	This months (Apr97) Windows NT Magazine has an interesting
	article on Software Installations over the Network. (Page 117)
	The author is Clayton Johnson. He's at http://www.registrymasters.com
	My sincere thanks to him in providing this information.

	Well, I took that article and with some modification, made it
	work in our group. I hope that this note will serve as a 
	"cookbook" approach to implimenting what is in the article.

	I *highly* suggest you read that article and the two on the Windows NT
	System Policy Editor (Feb97 page 101 and Apr97 page 139) before
	trying this.

	In a nutshell, what the article describes is a way to install
	software across a network fairly seemlessly. This is accomplished
	by taking advantage of an undocumented registry entry. Turning
	on that registry entry enables a new panel in the Add/Remove
	Programs dialog box. This panel is called "Network Install".
	An example is at
	
	http://isg25.zko.dec.com/ctiserver/softwareinstalls.htm

	The registry entry that is added is:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppInstallPath] 

	And the value is on our system: "\\ISG25\public\groupsw.inf"

	The article tells you to make the changes to C:\WINNT\INF\APPS.INF
	on your PDC. I don't like that reccomendation. APPS.INF comes with
	Windows NT. I don't like modifying files like that unless I have
	very good reason. Besides, this works fine using a "standalone" .INF 
	file and that is how I have chosen to use it.

	For an example, see below.

	The first hurdle is getting the registry entry on all your
	systems in your domain. This is where the System Policy Editor
	comes into play. Using the following template, you can
	distribute the change domain wide.

GROUPSW.ADM
<------------------------cut here-----------------------

CLASS MACHINE

CATEGORY !!RemoteInstall
	
	POLICY !!RemoteInstallPoint
		KEYNAME SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
		PART !!AppInstallCaption				
EDITTEXT
		VALUENAME "AppInstallPath"
			MAXLEN 255
			DEFAULT !!AppInstallPathDef
		END PART
	END POLICY
END CATEGORY

[strings]

RemoteInstall = "Group Remote Installation"
RemoteInstallPoint = "Location of Remote INF file"
AppInstallPathDef = "\\yoursystem\yourshare\groupsw.inf"
AppInstallCaption = "Location of INF file:"
<------------------------cut here-----------------------

	To use this, save the file, edit the AppInstallPathDef
	variable value to point to your central location for the
	.INF file. Now, start the system policy editor, Select
	Options...Policy Template. Add the GROUPSW.ADM file. Now
	open or create your domain policy file. This is at
	\\yourPDC\NETLOGON\NTCONFIG.POL. Double-click Default Computer
	and you should see a Checkbox with "Group Remote Installation".
	Check this to enable and ensure that the location of the
	file is correct.

	Ok, save this. Log out and log back in to a NT 4.0 system in
	the domain. Open the Control Panel and Add/Remove programs.
	You should see a new tabbed dialog box called Network Install
	and it should have the applications you entered into the
	INF file. You may edit the INF file at any time and re-click
	Add/Remove programs to get the latest update. Here's the
	example .INF file:

	An example file is:

<------------------------cut here-----------------------

[AppInstallList]
***Read this first BEFORE installing- Click "Install"*** =http://isg25.zko.dec.com/ctiserver/softwareinstalls.htm
Alpha TestApp				=\\system\share\foo-alpha.exe
-------------------------------		= nothing

<------------------------cut here-----------------------

	You need [AppInstallList] as the first line.

	Yes, that IS a URL as the first application! It's a great way to
	send people to an explaination of what's going on. However, I
	think it only works if the user is using Internet Explorer.

	The "-------------------------------         = nothing" line is
	just to break up the entries in the Add/Remove programs Network
	Install box.


	This also works with Windows95 by adding the same registry
	entry. You can configure Win95 policies the same way, however,
	you must use the Win95 policy editor instead.

	I hope this helps some of you.

							mike

Mike,

	GADOL!!!!

	Which in hebrew means - you are the greatest. Although You do mention
 your source, I'll give you the credit of remotely installing this Info with
(at least) me. (:{)

Shalom