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Category Archives: Deployment

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The Ultimate EXE Silent Switch Finder

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Last Friday, we had our lunch and learn on software extraction. One awesome benefit of these events are the tricks and tools we introduce to each other. Focus 25 IT admins on a single topic and you’ll have no choice but to learn something cool. The coolest thing I learned came from reader Kei Bi. When I first saw it, I couldn’t wait to share it with you!

 

The Problem with EXE Silent Switches

Most applications aren’t exactly standardized. Any silent switches that the EXE might support are dependent upon the packaging technology (ex: InstallShield) and the vendor. In our training, we spent a good bit of time talking about the different switches that might make an application install silently.

The Ultimate EXE Silent Switch Breakdown

When unsure, just starting throwing random switches at it!

The issue with the above method is that you have to remember a bunch of useless information just to get your application to deploy. In the past, I’ve used two excellent websites to find installer switches: AppDeploy (now ITNinja) and Unattended Installers. While I prefer MSI deployments, sometimes you are stuck deploying an EXE. Finding silent switches for these apps can be time consuming. Like most things in IT, there is a better solution.

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Getting to ZTI – Importing Computers into the MDT Database with PowerShell

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Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) is the pinnacle of OS deployment! Once a machine is imaged, ZTI means never visiting the machine again for re-imaging. Think for a second how much time is wasted by having to physically visit each machine when re-imaing! Most organizations believe it is only possible to reach ZTI with solutions like System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). In fact, Microsoft clearly states that SCCM is a requirement to get to ZTI. I am here to tell you that ZTI is possible without SCCM! Start by importing computers into the MDT Database with PowerShell:


What is the MDT Database?

This guide will assume you already have MDT configured and that you have the MDT database setup (though not populated). If you aren’t at the step yet, you can keep reading but you might want to check out these two resources:

When MDT is completely configured, you should have a full CustomSettings.ini that pre-populates most of your deployment settings. You will be left with a few options that have to be manually filled out though. The big two that have to be selected is the computer name and the Task Sequence. This is where the MDT database comes in.

Importing Computers into the MDT Database
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Easily Install Unknown Devices on Windows 8 (and 8.1)

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Over the weekend, I set a personal goal to upgrade all of my personal machines to Windows 8.1. Two installs went perfect! One went very very bad. As in “sad face blue screen of death” kind of bad…

Easily Install Unknown Devices on Windows 8 (and 8.1)

After doing a clean install, I was left with quite a few unknown and uninstalled devices. Taking a few pages for our automated hardware installation setup, I began reinstalling the hardware. Here is the quickest and cleanest way that I’ve found to install unknown devices on Windows 8 (and 8.1) machines.

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How to Uninstall Java with Group Policy Startup Scripts

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Deploying Java can be a real pain! While using this Java Deployment Guide, we recently ran into an issue where an updated version of Java would not install through Group Policy. What we needed was an automated way to uninstall Java regardless of the version.

Uninstall Java

 

A quick search of Google turned up numerous results with the same issue.  We found that we were able to correct the issue with JavaRa when ran manually. To have three people download and run JavaRa on 1500 workstations was out of the question though.  I knew there had to be a way to fix it and I was fortunate enough to find a script which automated the removal process for any Java version. The script can be found at the very bottom of this article.

This script solved the problem of getting the old version of Java off of the computer. Because the policy had already applied though, machines were still not installing the new version of Java.  That was quickly remedied by adding the following line onto the batch file.

“\\server\software\jre1.7.0_25\jre1.7.0_25.msi” /passive /norestart

As a note, you can also remove the stuck Application GPO by using the tool MSIManger. That tool can be found under the Active Directory/Group Policy section on this page.

02

This left one final obstacle, how do I get this file to run on the computers that need it without the necessity of my staff going around to log in to each one individually?  We decided to use a startup script that we distributed to all of our computers.  This also meant we had to add one final line to the startup script so the machine would automatically reboot once the java install was complete.

shutdown /r /t 0

We have since deployed Java 7 Update 40 and haven’t had any additional errors.

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The Default Logon ScreenSaver – Distributed Announcements

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Much like Genie from Aladdin, Group Policy Admins have unlimited power. Today, we are going to extend that power just a bit by configuring a custom default logon screensaver.  This is the screensaver that appears when no user is logged into the computer. This guide will cover the GPO creation and how you can safely let your staff manage this system.

Why should I bother with a default logon screensaver?

Blue Genie Answer: The screensaver can rotate through pictures; allowing you to share useful information with your staff. This can effectively turn your computers into a distributed announcement system for free.

Red Genie Answer: Because the screensaver can rotate through pictures, you can partner up with local businesses and sell advertisements. You can then offer staff members an opt-out option for a small yearly subscription! Absolute genius!

Logon ScreenSaver

As a practical example, our media specialists highlight new books that are available for checkout. This screensaver appears on the media center computers and encourages students to check out these books (an example is below).

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