Open VLC on all PCs from one location i.e Windows server

[niloc]

Hi All

 

Is it possible to open VLC on 30 PCs from a server using some kind of net send or something else?

[Guest TheLibrarian]

It is entirely possible, I would suggest you look at PSEXEC PsExec.

[browolf]

something like

 

for /f %a in ('net view | find "prefix" ') do psexec %a "c:\program files\vlc\etc"

[Admiral208]

check out EZ Execute. Its a gui for PSexec.

[niloc]

Can you give an example of a PSEXC script I could run to open VLC on 2 PCs via the server?

 

I guess you cannot do the same for login....?

[FN-GM]

We just installed it on all machines using a simple startup script.

 

if exist "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC" goto :eof ELSE
@echo off
\\server\share\vlc-1.1.4-win32.exe /S

 

 

 

PS: The switch is case sensitive.

[niloc]

Im sorry .... I cannot get this to work... Is there some kind of dummys guide of how to use this? From opening the program to executing commands like open VLC....

[FN-GM]

Im sorry .... I cannot get this to work... Is there some kind of dummys guide of how to use this? From opening the program to executing commands like open VLC....

 

Do you mean my script.

 

Well do the following

 

1. Create a shared folder. Permissions must be set so Domain Computers can have view rights.

2. Download VLC and place it into the share

3. Open note pad. Copy and paste my above text. Change the servername and share path and possibly file name.

4. File > save as. Call the file install.bat and on the "save file type as" select all files

5. Open group policy and select a group policy that applies to your computers.

6. Under computer configuration and startup scrips find the install.bat file.

 

Reboot your machines you should be fine.

 

 

EDIT: Sorry i misread your post this will install VLC not open it

Edited October 25, 2010 by FN-GM

[niloc]

Once I have installed this is there then a way of streaming content to 30 laptops? I will setup a stream from the server and have a shortcut on 30 PCs that subscribe to that stream. I want to open all the streams around the same time.... want to automate the process basically..

[somabc]

check out EZ Execute. Its a gui for PSexec.

 

Do you know where I can obtain EZ Execute? Their website is down.

[niloc]

PenguinByte.com

[niloc]

Can anyone help further with this?

[Guest TheLibrarian]

Do the PC's you want to run VLC on have follow a naming convention? If so post the convention they follow please if you want help with the for command.

 

The program that will allow you to remotely execute VLC on the workstations / laptops is PsExec.

 

 

The parameters you need to pass to execute VLC remotely are -s -d -i \\remotecomputername C:\path to vlc\vlc.exe [parameters for vlc here].

For completeness I should make you aware that the -s switch will run VLC with SYSTEM priviledges.

You may not need the -s switch, it'd be worth testing with and without it and if it works without, don't use it.

 

Alternatively, if you do not want to use the for command, or the PC's do not follow a naming convention then you can use \\remotecomputername1,remotecomputername2,remotecomputername3 and so on.

 

If you want the PC's to start VLC more or less at the same time then I'd suggest using the start "Starting VLC" /min command preceding the psexec otherwise the last PC to start VLC will likely be behind the first one by a number of seconds multiplied by the number of PC's you started VLC on.

Edited October 28, 2010 by TheLibrarian

[niloc]

What if the PCs have a shortcut on the desktop which point to a UDP multicast stream..... Can you open this?

[Guest TheLibrarian]

If you take the parameters passed to VLC in the shortcut and pass them on the psexec line after the vlc.exe, that should do it.