software install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brent
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B

Brent

Does AD keep track of the workstations that an assigned
program installed on. We have some systems that have
DeepFreeze installed on them. DeepFreeze locks the
workstation so that any changes (new files created,
deleted, system settings changed, software install or
uninstalled) go away when the system is restarted and the
system returns to the state it was when it was frozen.
So if an program in installed on a frozen computer when
it restarts it will be like the program was never
installed. Should the program just reinstall on startup
or would it not be installed because AD kept a log/record
that a particularly software installation was already
installed on that workstation. We are in the process of
converting from NT 4 to 2000 so we have not done any GP
software installs. I wanted to see if anyone could give
any info on the GP software install behavior before I
started to experiment with it.
 
You're really asking an MSI question... The MSI checks defined "key paths"
to make sure an application is still installed. If the key path is missing
or corrupted, the feature associated with that key path is
re-installed/repaired. So, if all the key paths were missing, all the
features (i.e. the entire piece of software) would be re-installed. Key
paths can be either files (which can be matched by file size, date [?], and
major/minor version #) or registry keys (matched by keypath and data value).

All the group policy does is say: [Un/]Install this MSI at boot-up (for
machine assigned installations) or login (for user-assigned/published
installations). The MSI itself, and the msiexec service, deal with the
intelligence of whether software is installed, what if anything needs to be
repaired, and so on.

Hopefully that clarifies things a little. I'm a little surprised something
like Deepfreeze works in a domain environment... I'd think the image
restored at boot would eventually fail to log into the computer account in
the domain when its password expired after 30 days or how-ever long.

\\ MadDHatteR
 
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