WPKG Deploying Software

[Steven]

Anyone used WPKG for Deploying software i red on another topic here thats it better than Deploying through GPO, Just need a little bit of help on how to set it up to pull software from server etc etc thanks steve.

[SimpleSi]

I use it in my schools as they have a mixture of w2k3/Win98/Ubuntu machines set up as file servers and WPKG runs on any of them as all the work is done my Windows XP clients.

I think GPO deployment is the big daddy of windows deployment and is highly integrated into AD therefore it is better than using WPKG if your a Windows server/AD expert.

Using WPKG justs lets you get on with deploying without have MSARSE qualifications :P

At the moment all my schools are running pre 1.0 versions and I'm waiting for 1.0 RC versions to be declared finished before switching so I may not know the latest way of deploying V1.0RCx itself.

But in a nutshell, you create a share (customary to call it \\servername\wpkg) stick a few files in there, run wpkgstart.bat from there everytime the computer boots (I run it in the all users startup folder as I don't connect my machines as domain members even if I've got a W2k3 server)

I don't worry about silent installs as I don't deploy software that often and I warn the teachers to warn the pupils not to cancel anything.

I package up installs by using Autoit to automate key press answers or create simple .bat files if I just need to copy shortcuts to the desktop.

Hope this helps - please come back for more info

regards

Simon