Removing CC4

[simonhayes]

Hi all,

 

We are preparing for a summer upgrade where we go Vanilla and combine our school network with the school next door.

 

I've followed these instructions here regarding how to remove CC4 on Windows XP. Granted we're Windows 7 now, but it still seems to work if you replace the 'secedit' command with "secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose".

 

Anyhow, we thought we were doing really well as we'd done all of this, and even wrote PowerShell scripts to automate the process. But now we've hit a brick wall as when trying to remove the PC from the domain, we get an 'Access is denied' message. Even when logged in as admin.

 

I have spoken to RM about this (without telling them why exactly why I am doing this), and apparently this is 'security' feature of CC4 to prevent anyone trying to do this, and the only way around it is to do a full reinstall. I don't buy this at all.

 

Does anyone know a way round this?

[halbaradkenafin]

We migrated away from CC4 over the holidays and the approach we took was to just reimage all the PCs and put them on to a new domain. The impact that CC4 has on the server and clients is such that even following proper uninstall process is likely to leave some things behind and you'll likely spend twice as long trying to patch things up as you would have just starting fresh with new DCs and migrating all the users across.

[simonhayes]

The problem is, some PCs have bespoke software installed some of which we don't have disks for and some that we will have to pay an external company to reinstall.

[mowgli82]

Not that this is much help but AFAIK this has been a feature of all RM networks since Connect 2.4

[simonhayes]

You seem to be able to do it in PowerShell, but even after you've changed it, it still won't let you change it to anything else with the GUI.

 

Still, it could be a workaround.

[Meldrew]

Clean slate is really the only viable option to be honest, having gone CC3 to vanilla win 7 back in 2010. I seem to remember seeing some software years ago that was supposed to be able to pickup a software installation, including registry frags, dlls, etc and 'install' it on another PC. This might help you with the bespoke software. Really, you need to do something anyway - what happens if the HDD dies on one of these PCs?

 

Meldrew

[cpjitservices]

Yep I agree with @mowgli82 - if you want to do a remove of any RM CC platform from 2.3 to 4 - you need to do a reinstall of the OS.

 

No other way to do it - and even if you did the OS will be very messy.

[Crumpet]

We're going to be in this position over the summer. Unfortunatly most of it was handled by the external company and Senior Management with minimal talk to IT Support.

 

the most feedback we've had so far is for the company to big up themselves over the server install (whilst trying to belittle our department) without addressing the two key factors of re-imaging the workstations to get rid of CC4 and the issue of software deployment. There are other issues that need to be addressed also.

 

When we upgraded from CC3 to CC4 a few years back we had a few months before the summer to test build workstations and prepare all of the software ready for deployment so we had a thorough testing phase to make sure everything worked like clockwork. Even then it was a graft to get everything sorted for new term.

 

I'm certain the server side will be sorted, but am i right to be concerned over the rest of the network? We have around 600 PC's/ Laptops that will need to be re-imaged in less than six weeks depending on when the new server is up and running.

[halbaradkenafin]

I'd definitely be concerned about that. We managed to rebuild ~500 devices last summer through the use of MDT and we had only a few issues with the actual migration. We did have about a year of prep work going into the whole migration project including a lot of time talking and planning with the company who handled the server side of things.

 

I'd use any free time you have between now and summer to back up all your GPOs and get all the packages out of CC4. If possible I'd suggest getting the company to do the server set up (other than AD migration) as soon as possible and just have it all set up with its own switch and a client or two hooked up to it. Any extra time you can get in the summer to rebuild machines and troubleshoot problems (there are always a few) is important.

[Crumpet]

I'd definitely be concerned about that. We managed to rebuild ~500 devices last summer through the use of MDT and we had only a few issues with the actual migration. We did have about a year of prep work going into the whole migration project including a lot of time talking and planning with the company who handled the server side of things.

 

I'd use any free time you have between now and summer to back up all your GPOs and get all the packages out of CC4. If possible I'd suggest getting the company to do the server set up (other than AD migration) as soon as possible and just have it all set up with its own switch and a client or two hooked up to it. Any extra time you can get in the summer to rebuild machines and troubleshoot problems (there are always a few) is important.

 

Thanks, my mantra has always been that if something hasn't been field tested then it's likely to go belly up so going into this blind on such a short timescale is a major concern for me. We're still waiting to get the training sorted too as we've been running RM since forever. Managing a Vanilla network is an unnkown for us. We're literally flying by the skin of our teeth this summer.

 

We've got a meeting soon with the company soon so at least we can clarify exactly what they're doing and what we have to do to get things done for September.

 

The two good things to come out of this is that we'll get a fair bit of money spent on training and a Vanilla Network but it's not how i'd have planned the changeover, not by a long shot

[halbaradkenafin]

It's pretty easy to mange once things are set up, most things just work. If you're used to regular profile resets (which apparently is a thing with CC4, I've never really used it much) then you won't have to do that much unless you've got some funky software that still causes problems (we have serif and still have the odd problem with it).