Registry key deployment using GP

[Mauri]

We have some new software and this is what it states

"The first run of the software on any workstation will need to be executed by a user who has privileges which allow writing to the registry"

 

I have the key all I need now is to know how to deploy it using GP preferably. Any other methods are welcomed apart from machine to machine visits as there are too many.

 

Thank you all

[cromertech]

Are you installing the software with group policy. If you are I would think that it would do this on install

[Mauri]

The software is on the network, the registry key links to a database belonging to the software on the network.

 

I need to deploy the registry key so that the database path is on the machine so that when they try to run the app it knows where to look for it.

 

Thanks for giving it a go

[cromertech]

You can try a start up script as this is run with admin privileges. If you have the registry key in a .reg file you should be able to call it from a script. The only problem with this is that it will run everytime the machine is started making it a little unnecessary after the first time.

 

You can try this program Bozteck VNCScan Enterprise Network Manager | Bozteck VNC Man

 

With it you are able to send any script to any computer. It has a free trial so you should be able to do what you want before it expires if you don't find it indespensible like i did and buy it anyway

[penfold]

If you are using a startup script and you also have something like LanView, then you can remotely logon to a classroom full of machines at the same time. Stick your reg file script in for the user and then remove it once you have logged out and you know it has been run.

 

I used to use this trick when I wanted to ensure that some settings had been updated and I didn't know how often some PCs had been used.(Yes some machines have been left off for weeks and some are used every day). Stick in some update scripts in a default user logon and then remotely log on to all machines at once let the updates run and shut them down again. Obviously do this at the end of the school day, or in the holidays:)

[Mauri]

You can try a start up script as this is run with admin privileges. If you have the registry key in a .reg file you should be able to call it from a script. The only problem with this is that it will run everytime the machine is started making it a little unnecessary after the first time.

 

You can try this program Bozteck VNCScan Enterprise Network Manager | Bozteck VNC Man

 

With it you are able to send any script to any computer. It has a free trial so you should be able to do what you want before it expires if you don't find it indespensible like i did and buy it anyway

 

I can do that and take the script off after a week or so. Thanks

[TheScarfedOne]

The other option is to use placeholder files. We use these quite a lot on our system. The script does an if-then-else, to see if a text file exists in a location. If it doesn't, then it runs the registry add silently and then copies the placeholder file. If the file exists, the script exits.

[powdarrmonkey]

Apply a group policy object to the workstations and configure the local machine registry section.

[Oakie]

Use the built in XCOPY command in a batch file to send the reg key to multiple computers. Then use Psexec tool to merge regfile remotely.

 

The following batch file goes through a text file (wslist.txt) with all the names of the computers to want to copy the reg file to. It connects you to the hidden administrative share ipc$ on each machine and authenticates with the username and password. (be sure to change those to suit your needs). Then it uses Xcopy to copy a folder named regkeyfolder and its contents to each remote computer. It pauses at the end to let you see the results or (lack of).

 

Copy this code to notepad, save as copyregfiles.bat :

@echo off
for /f  %%a in (wslist.txt) do (
net use \\%%a\ipc$ /user:administrator   yourpassword
xcopy /s /i /e /f c:\regkeyfolder  \\%%a\c$\regkeyfolder
)
pause

 

Create a .txt file called wslist.txt

Put the names of the machines you want to send your .reg file to.

computer-01

computer-02

computer-03

 

Put the copyregfiles.bat file and the wslist.txt file together at the root of C:\ on your admin machine. Create a shortcut to the copyregfiles.bat file and put it on the desktop for easy access.

 

Create this folder C:\regkeyfolder on your admin machine

Put your reg file in there, I’ll call it: myregfile.reg

Create a batch file that will merge the contents of myregfile.reg into the registry of the remote Computers.

 

Here is the code for the batch file:

regedit /s myregfile.reg

 

Name it : mergemyregfile.bat

 

Put mergemyregfile.bat with myregfile.reg in the folder C:\regkeyfolder on the admin machine.

 

Click the copyregfiles.bat shortcut you put on the desktop to start copying C:\regkeyfolder and the contents to the remote machines.

 

Once we have copied the regkeyfolder and it's contents of myregfile.reg and mergemyregfile.bat to C:\regkeyfolder on the remote machines, you need a tool to run the mergemyregfile.bat files on the remote machines.

To do this download Pstools (free) and place psexec.exe in the c:\windows\ directory of your admin computer. you could put in any other folder of your choice, but if it goes there, you can run it from any directory in the command line.

 

Open a command prompt and change the directory to C:\ >

 

Run this command:

psexec -i @wslist.txt -u administrator -p yourpassword c:\regkeyfolder\mergemyregfile.bat

 

This file runs psexec and uses the list of computers in C:\wslist.txt . The -u switch supplies the administrator name, the -p switch supplies the password. Psexec then runs the mergemyregfile.bat file. That batch file merges myregfile.reg into the remote computer’s registry.

 

 

Reboot remote computers to complete registry changes.

you could do that with psshutdown.exe.

 

C:\>psshutdown -r @wslist.txt -u administrator -p yourpassword

 

 

Done.

[browolf]

you could write your own group policy file. if you open any the of default windows adm files in notepad, you'll see the structure isnt that complicated.

 

plus there's some guide here:

Writing Custom ADM Files for System Policy Editor

How to write custom .adm and .admx administrative template files to provide an elevation policy for protected mode in Internet Explorer 7.0

[EvLPhenom]

The other option is to use placeholder files. We use these quite a lot on our system. The script does an if-then-else, to see if a text file exists in a location. If it doesn't, then it runs the registry add silently and then copies the placeholder file. If the file exists, the script exits.

 

We use this method too where the first part of the script will check for a file with the computers name and if it is there it doesn't run and if it isn't it will run your script and create the file at the end so that it won't run again for that machine.

 

we found that this method comes in handy especially when doing things like copying registry edits and other files to more than one computer.

[SteveBentley]

Use regmon to find out what it does actually do to the registry, cook up a suitable .reg file and put

 

regedit /s path-to-your-file.reg

 

in the login script.