[fog] Registry Edits via Snapins

[emaynard]

Curious what tools FOG server admins use to manage registry settings? Looking for some best practices for making these changes using snapins.

 

Do you create batch files, AutoIT scripts/exe's, VB scripts, etc... ?

 

thanks in advance,

Eric

[emaynard]

I know that the main FOG wiki and ssx4life "Supported Snapins" page mentions that VBS scripts require that you link to cscript in the Run Snapin With field, but I do not see any mention of CMD or BAT files.

 

I have a CMD file that I am trying to load on a PC and I tried unsuccessfully both with and with out a link to C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe

 

Is there a best practice for loading these kinds of files as snapins?

[ssx4life]

Crap.... my nice long response got axed....

 

Let me give you the .02 cent version.

 

#1. Run the files remotely with psexec - PsExec

#2. Run them with SFX Maker ( I prefer this method) - iSoft Online :: Home of SFXMaker (basically you encapsulate them)

 

FOG has issues with batch / cmd files being remotely executed due to the way windows permissions handles the running of these files (running them locally with local credentials vs. remote)

 

Let me know if you need more help.

[emaynard]

I was slowly (through experience) coming to that realization - that FOG (actually Windows) doesn't like the way these files have to be run. Figured it was likely permission related. I will check into your suggestions.

 

As always, thanks for the advice ssx.

[kwisher]

Hello All,

 

New member to these forums and look forward to participating here. I am the network admin at a small school system and have just setup my first FOG server. We are a Novell 6.5 based network and were using the Zenworks imaging system. I have successfully turned off the Zenworks system and have Fog running and am able to save and deploy images. The problem I am now facing is that after a new image has been restored to a PC, it has to be registered into the Novell eDirectory tree in order for the DLU (dynamic local user) to be recognized. The previous admin has a registry file that has to executed on each machine after a new image. This requires visiting each machine and executing the reg file. I would like to make this a FOG snapin and push it to the machines after a new image or manually pushing it when required. Can anyone please provide some instructions on how to accomplish this?

 

TIA

[morganw]

All of my snapins are just .cmd files that are uploaded to the fog server - this way you can install MSI files via msiexec, use a silent install switch, import registry fragments etc.

 

if you wanted to import a registry fragment the easiest way is make a read-only deployment share on a server, then make a .cmd file that contains

 

regedit /s "\\server\deploymentshare$\fragment.reg"

 

Then upload that .cmd file as the snapin, you wont have to set any run with options or anything like that, just give it a name, upload the file and then save.

[kwisher]

Thanks for the quick reply. I believe your solution is more elegant than using the "run with" option.

[dhicks]

if you wanted to import a registry fragment the easiest way is make a read-only deployment share on a server, then make a .cmd file

 

I've tried your way, and I've tried setting up a snapin with the .reg file in question with "run with" set to regedit, all to no effect. fog.log says the snapin is running okay and returning error code 0, it's just not updating the registry how it should be. Does anyone know what user the snapin user runs as - a local administrator, domain admin, or some other limited-rights user?

 

--

David Hicks

[morganw]

I can't remember exactly, I did see once when trying to install the ActivStudio MSI via a .cmd file using the same method, I think it was something like COMPUTER\localuser or COMPUTER\localsystem as the ActivStudio installer thought it was an actual user and was trying to copy things into it's profile.

 

Which reg keys are you trying to set?

Don't suppose it's getting stopped by a software restriction policy or anything like that?

 

The easiest way to escalate your privledges slightly is to use something like a 7zip SFX installer (the way ssx4life sets up all of his stuff). I've only had to do this on about 4 or 5 things out of about 100 though. Had to adjust antivirus settings as well when doing this as NOD32 thinks that a silent SFX installer is dangerous (obviously could be if it wasn't yours). Again I don't know the exact user that it's running with, but I can testify that it works.

[dhicks]

Which reg keys are you trying to set?

 

I'm trying to set AutoAdminLogon, with the idea being that the snapin runs, then reboots and auto-logins as the "install" user to run a bunch of install scripts. I'm just trying a compiled AutoIT .exe now - it should make sure it runs regedit as a user with admin rights, we'll see if that sorts it.

 

Had to adjust antivirus settings as well when doing this as NOD32 thinks that a silent SFX installer is dangerous

 

The antivirus client isn't installed yet, that's the part I'm trying to get to...

 

--

David Hicks