Complete guide to WDS...question

[themightymrp]

You can, or if you rename them as .cmd instead of .bat they can be added as applications. I have numerous applications which are just batch files which launch various installs from the network.

 

Are the machines you are deploying to going to be on a domain or standalone? If they are joining a domain the you can turn off the features you want via Group Policies. If they are standalone you could always try to find the registry keys that govern those settings and then create a .reg file that can be imported from command line?

[agarabaghi]

I guess the machines which I want last user not remembered and disabling of ALT CTRL DEL screen are the labs, so they will be on the domain. Time to knock on the AD guys door!

[agarabaghi]

Went to pxe boot this morning, and now im getting an Windows PE has encounter and environment error? This is a pop up at the splash screen for MS Solution Accelerators

[Gatt]

9/10 the reason for this is a failed deployment - best bet is to clean the disk and try again..

MDT has a habit of not playing nicely if it doesn't end the wizard correctly - thereby leaving traces on the C: Drive...

[agarabaghi]

looks like i have to browse out of the directory and then back into the boot directory to load up a newly update Lite x64 .wim boot file.

 

Some things ive notice, when i run an install with a silent command it works from the CMD but not when MDT trys to do it...

 

iTunes

Sawtooth SSI Web

Turning Point 2008

Turning Point Anywhere

Adobe Flash (distribution package)

[Gatt]

There was an issue with iTunes and silent installation IIRC..

Something to do with Quicktime's MSI and it needed to be editted..

[agarabaghi]

It's weird cause i extracted the .exe and ran /qn on itunes setup and then quicktime.exe /qn and they worked from the command line on my home laptop

i might do those programs through batch over the network.

[agarabaghi]

strange just tried it on a 790 desktop, and i got an error "could not locate partition"

[Gatt]

Yeah I remember this issue, but not the exact cause / solution

 

Basically you could get Itunes to deploy silently when entered into a command line, but put the same switches into MDT and it failed

It was something to do with at least one of the MSI files that had to be editted to get round it...

 

Never tried it via a batch file so may be worth looking into

 

(Thought the issue was on here somewhere but can't find it just now...)

[agarabaghi]

I will try the batch deployment. Do you know if i force restarts on applications, will MDT continue upon reboot? I feel like forcing a reboot between some software might help... but i dont wanna cancel out MDT.

[Gatt]

it **should** do yes...

[agarabaghi]

So ive made my batch file to run. But im trying to add it into MDT... I did file somewhere on network drives

 

Command line: cmd.exe /c msi_installers.cmd <----- cmd file i want to run

Working Directory: \\imaging.rollins.edu\REMINST\Images\msi_installers <-----path where msi_installers.cmd is located

 

Make sense?

[sted]

quicktime needs the msi editing as it thinkd the default is taiwanese you need to orca it so only language left is 1033 iirc

[Arthur]

There was an issue with iTunes and silent installation IIRC..

Something to do with Quicktime's MSI and it needed to be editted..

I thought iTunes no longer required QuickTime from v10.5 onwards?

[agarabaghi]

has anyone notice when you force an application to reboot after install, and it resumes the software installs, sometimes you get an error about the network connection not being ready, seems like it rushes to connect again and the network card isnt ready, if u click retry it works. Is there a setting to make this last longer...

[themightymrp]

When I deploy the iTunes and Quicktime bundle, I extract all the MSI's from the exe and then put the following in a .cmd file:

 

msiexec /i AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi /quiet
msiexec /i AppleApplicationSupport.msi /quiet /norestart
msiexec /i QuickTime.msi /quiet /passive
iTunesSetup.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

 

Works a treat. Oh and these commands for 64bit version:

 

msiexec /i AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi /quiet
msiexec /i AppleApplicationSupport.msi /quiet 
msiexec /i Bonjour64.msi /quiet
msiexec /i QuickTime.msi /quiet /passive
iTunes64Setup.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

 

Note, I save the relevant batch file into the same folder as the extracted msi's, then when I add the application to MDT I can point it to the folder and select installQT.cmd or whatever you want to call it

[agarabaghi]

when you call the cmd file in MDT, what line do you use? do you simple put Command Line: installitunes.cmd or something like cmd.exe /c installitunes.cmd

[agarabaghi]

using the cmd.exe /c itunessetup.cmd worked great for me! Thanks!

 

Still mustering through some random programs from win 98 era that people are still using in the teaching lab here. sigh.

 

Anyone have suggestions on approaching old dos base games / biology apps that dont really have an installer... they just need a shortcut to a .exe on the desktop, and the .exe sits in a folder on the C:\

[Gatt]

DosBox? (The app not our illustrious leader!)

 

Install it on a PC and configure it with all the DOS apps/games on it

The folder than then be dumped into a MSI or even just xcopy'd over..

 

 

Edit: to clarify:

you would need to install DosBox to all the Pcs, then XCOPY the config and games from the reference source

Edited May 23, 2012 by Gatt

[agarabaghi]

interesting. i will check it out when i get to this point. Another issue is licensing some programs. I found where the license files resides when applied, and im thinking of just xcopy'ing that drectory upon login over AD.

[sted]

if it works natively just write a script to copy files to c:\appname and cop a shortcut to all user startmenu/desktop

[agarabaghi]

do you know the line to create / copy a short cut to the desktop?

[themightymrp]

if it works natively just write a script to copy files to c:\appname and cop a shortcut to all user startmenu/desktop

 

Agreed, I've done the same with a couple of old apps that don't really have an 'installer' as such.

[sted]

make the shortcut on a pc and shove it in with the files to copy then just

copy "c:\myapp\myapp.lnk" "C:\Users\Public\Desktop\myapp.lnk" /y

[Gatt]

If using Windows 2008 or above you can do that via Group Policy Preferences