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Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

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Hi!
I need to deploy IE 5.5 to 1200+ NT4 workstations without the benefit of using SMS. I have built a custom install package using IEAK. Login scripts don’t work since the users don’t have admin level permissions. I don’t have scripting skills, but if someone can point me in the right direction, I’m sure I’ll be OK. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

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Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

I deployed an IEAK build by posting it to the intranet and emailing a link to it. Since I changed the IE logos, it’s REALLY obvious if you don’t have it.

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

Thanks, but since my users don’t have admin level permissions, they can’t run the install.

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

I support a network of 1900 PCs running WinNT4 without SMS. One technique I worked out might help you if you have the Resource Kit. I’ve never tested it with an IEAK package but it works with other single-file executable setups I’ve done. It may sound a little odd, and you won’t get any reporting back, but it seems to generally work. No scripting required, just NT commands.

First, you need a list of all your workstations. Run “net view > ws.txt” or something along those lines to get a list. Then you need all your workstations running the Schedule / Task Scheduler service if they aren’t already. You can run something like

for /f %i in (ws.txt) do sc %i start schedule

That should get schedule running on your workstations under the System account. Now you’ll have to copy your IE executable to all the workstations

for /f %i in (ws.txt) do copy ie.exe %i\c$

or something like that. You can’t leave it on the network, since the System account isn’t able to access network shares on the domain.

Finally, create an “at” job on each workstation to run the program. I usually schedule these for after-hours. Example:

for /f %i in (ws.txt) do at %i 3:00 c:\ie.exe

You may want to redirect the output of these commands to a file so that you can see if there were any errors.

I’ve done this and for the most part it gets the job done. The big disadvantage, at least in our environment, is that workstations don’t get the package if they’re turned off while you’re doing all this. Either way, good luck with your installation.

Cheers,
Paul

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

The install files are all on a network share, and if I copy them to each workstation, it will take just as much time as a manual install. The info you provided will probably help me with other projects though. Thanks

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

Although we use SMS for major installations we also use the login script for ‘backup’ installations (on PCs that have bad SMS Client setups) so I’m familiar with the problem of trying to install software without admin rights on the workstation. Here’s how we get around it:

We created a global group called WorkstationAdmin and installed it in the local Admin group on the all workstations via the Addusers.exe utility, which is in the NT Resource Kit. Then, when we want the user to have admin rights for a software installation we move the user accounts into that global group, and they then have admin rights on the workstations. When we’re done with the installation, we take them out.

This isn’t a perfect solution, but it works – and we spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with another, without success.

Good luck with it – and consider installing SMS – it’s not great but it’s better than nothing.

Mike

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

In reply to Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

I haven’t used addusers.exe, but I’ll try it out. Thanks for your help!

Deployment of IE 5.5 to 1200 + clients

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