New section on the wiki regarding Educational software

[ChrisH]

We all know how much a lot of Educational software basically sucks. Whether it be getting the program to install or using a certain feature of it.
Information is also scattered to the four corners of the internet as well and can be time consuming to track down the relevant information after getting no joy from a companies website or technical support helpline. So.....

Lets us share our knowledge and experience of this awkward collection of substandard code and save people 3 hours they dont have to get that certain piece of software working.

As well as certain installation issues this section should contain information on any tips and tricks that may be needed when converting these installers to MSI format or alternative methods used when MSI packages just cant be created with packages like Studio 2004 for example.

So please share with us any of your notes you have on installations or your recent experience with certain packages so we can start to build up a decent knowledge base for the Edugeek Community.

http://www.edugeek.net/wiki/index.ph..._Knowledgebase

Cheers

Chris

[HodgeHi]

Any chance ther could be some info added on the best knids of msi and mst creation software and tips on how to get the best out of them.

I don't usually use software deployment to distribute software, one ris and out it goes locally, and what can be run across the network stays on the network, but i have just run into some problems with software where i don't have the CDs to hand and a bunch of pre-compiled MSI's that don't seem work.

Any help on these matters would be excellent i.e. decompiling msi's if possible. I haven't looked into any of this as yet but will be doing so soon.

[j17sparky]

HodgeHi - Does ORCA not decompile MSI's? Theres a link in the essential software list.

ChrisH - good man! I hate it when a teacher comes to me with their brand new "brilliant" peice of software. They realy hate being told that their fantastic buy is so badly designed it looks like one of the pupils put it together.

I just cant understand why educational software developers design software for single workstations and completely disregard the fact its going to go on a network. Making such stupid suggestion of the likes of "give everyone full control of the system32 dir"

[ChrisH]

As you can see by the date I put this up a while ago but their hasnt been much of an uptake unfortunately

Edit:
I see some people have added some entries which is great!

Lets get some more info on there

[mark]

Yes - great idea Chris - sorely needed.

[edie209]

Yes I agree this is a great idea.

I am fighting with Marcomedia Suite MX Educational version at the moment trying to achieve a silent install and I would love it to be from GPO. Anyone one have any success with this I have searched the web and tried a couple different ways but as yet I have had no luck. If you have done it PLEASE show me the way

[ChrisH]

MX 2004?

[edie209]

Yeh sorry I should have said MX2004 ops:

[ChrisH]

I have it installing itself. I added it to the wiki with a few links but didnt finish of the details. I have it install as seperate programs as I have created a switchless silent installer for them all. I run this at the end of a RIS intallation. It does pop up a web page but this can be ignored. It's registered via a reg import. You should be able to wrap these up using the MSI wrapper which I believe Ric has done. The only other thing to mention is for me flash has to run as admin first time for some first run files which I believe are something to do with the user profile. If you get these files into your default profile then this shouldnt be a problem.

[edie209]

Could you possible let me have more details on how you managed it.

From what I understand

1st you created seperate MSIs for each application (I will be using WINinstall for this is that ok) as when I try to creat a MSI with WINinstall I don't seem to end up with a single msi I have a couple extras directories a reg file normaly is there a final step I'm missing?

2nd you are creating a reg import which you are deploying through a MSI wrapper (Ric do you have any details)

3rd running flash as admin for some first run files (this could present a problem all student have individual profiles.... maybe time for a rethink)

I too am using RIS and have got a image that install to 98% of my machines now just got an Nvidia NIC problem on the last PCs but that will be another post sometime

[mark]

How about Studio 8? Anybody had success with that?

I found a Macromedia page that instructs you to copy the licence files (installer.mlf and license.mlf) from the c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\macromedia\licensing\ folder from a licensed PC onto other machines to register it.

The install files for v8 are in the install folder \FSCOMMAND as seperate installs, the process seems very drawn out on appdeploys' instructions - even tho' they do rate it as 'somewhat easy' lol

I'd also like to automate first run of all apps so there aren't the errors about running as admin first.

Apparently the 1st login error i'm getting with fireworks is caused by the MSI creating the value as:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Fireworks 8\ (derived from [INSTALLDIR]).
Fireworks doesn't seem to like the \ at the end of the value.

apparently I need to write a script to remove the \ from the end of the registry value. - Anyone?

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by edie209

Could you possible let me have more details on how you managed it.

From what I understand

1st you created seperate MSIs for each application (I will be using WINinstall for this is that ok) as when I try to creat a MSI with WINinstall I don't seem to end up with a single msi I have a couple extras directories a reg file normaly is there a final step I'm missing?

2nd you are creating a reg import which you are deploying through a MSI wrapper (Ric do you have any details)

3rd running flash as admin for some first run files (this could present a problem all student have individual profiles.... maybe time for a rethink)

I too am using RIS and have got a image that install to 98% of my machines now just got an Nvidia NIC problem on the last PCs but that will be another post sometime

No I didnt create MSIs it never seems to work very well for anyone I know when they have tried. They are the original setup programs that install with a silent switch.

You could then wrap these exes up with the MSI wrapper as all its doing is running setup exes.

To get the registry information install flash normally and register then regedit and export the whole macromedia section and merge that when neccessary. This will register all the programs. You can use this method with any of fireworks etc but I do it with flash as I have to do that first run.

I will write a step by step when I get a bit of time but if you look on the wiki I have already started it in rough.

[mark]

Added SIM .net and Studio 8

A bit rough but hopefully ppl will help tidy them up!

[edie209]

Thanks ChrisH I will be trying that today (hopefully)

[ChrisH]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Lets get a few more on there while were at it .