wireless driver exe install through group policy

[ingie79]

Firstly, id like to point out that this area is completely new to me
and any help would be appreciated.

I would like to install a wireless driver update through group policy.
The driver install is an exe file and i have over 600 laptops to roll
it out to.

Does anyone know of the best approach to this and how to do it?

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

Hi,

I would like to install a wireless driver update through group policy.
The driver install is an exe file and i have over 600 laptops to roll
it out to.
Does anyone know of the best approach to this and how to do it?

Some intel drivers have a seperate unattended parameter, then you can just
use a computerstartup script to roll it out.

If it is a simple file change (driver.sys) you can try to create an own
MSI file an deploy it with GPO or computer startup script aswell
(msiexec /i name.msi /qb)

Mark

 

[ingie79]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I have been looking at deployment through msi
but i dont have enough knowledge in order to create one from scratch.

I have tried through before and after snapshots but the msi i created
was unsuccessful. It went through its process but when i ran the
software the .dll files were missing.

There must be a script out there that executes a command to run an
executable on startup

Thanks.

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

Hi,

I have tried through before and after snapshots but the msi i created
was unsuccessful. It went through its process but when i ran the
software the .dll files were missing.

Take a look in the inf file, you find all needed information
there, but as you can see, not as easy as it could be ...

There must be a script out there that executes a command to run an
executable on startup

No.
If the developer doesn´t integrate this function in the executable
it´s really hard. The driversetup has to work without a userenvironment
and than you need something like: "ok - accept - ok - ok - enter - enter"


Mark

 

[ingie79]

Mark,

Do you know of a way in which to transform an exe file into an msi?
Without the use of using before and after snapshot software. The
machines in which i want to distribute the software are all the same
but may have different configurations i.e. software, existing drivers.

I understand that this process will only work if ALL machines are
exactly the same...is this so?

Thanks

 

[Darren Mar-Elia]

Not necessarily. The key to snapshotting really, is to make sure that the
machine you snapshot is pretty clean, that you take a snapshot before,
install your software, then immediately after to get only those elements
that the app install added. After that, whatever else is on your machines
should not be impacted or impact the install.

--
Darren Mar-Elia
MS-MVP-Windows Server--Group Policy
http://www.gpoguy.com -- The Windows Group Policy Information Hub:
FAQs, Training Videos, Whitepapers and Utilities for all things Group
Policy-related

Get the New GPHealth Reporter tool at
http://www.sdmsoftware.com/products.php





Mark,

Do you know of a way in which to transform an exe file into an msi?
Without the use of using before and after snapshot software. The
machines in which i want to distribute the software are all the same
but may have different configurations i.e. software, existing drivers.

I understand that this process will only work if ALL machines are
exactly the same...is this so?

Thanks

 

[Andy Inglis]

Hi,

Not necessarily. The key to snapshotting really, is to make sure that the
machine you snapshot is pretty clean, that you take a snapshot before,
install your software, then immediately after to get only those elements
that the app install added. After that, whatever else is on your machines
should not be impacted or impact the install.

Thanks but I tried this once before with Starboard software. It went
through the installation but when the software was installed, it failed
and illustrated that 'something.dll' was missing.

Is there a way in which to do this with a vbs script and run the
installer automatically?

 

[Darren Mar-Elia]

Right, I think it depends upon the snapshotting software you are using. If
there is a shared DLL on one system and not on another, and the snapshot
tool doesn't see that you've added a reference to it and thus must include
it in the package, then it will fail.

You can certainly use a GP startup script for example, to call a setup.exe.
However, that setup.exe has to support a silent install. Alternatively, if
the setup doesn't require the user running it to have some kind of elevated
rights (which is rare) then you could call it interactively from the logon
script. Since you're installing a driver, the user must have local admin
rights, which works in favor of doing this in the computer startup script.

--
Darren Mar-Elia
MS-MVP-Windows Server--Group Policy
http://www.gpoguy.com -- The Windows Group Policy Information Hub:
FAQs, Training Videos, Whitepapers and Utilities for all things Group
Policy-related

Get the New GPHealth Reporter tool at
http://www.sdmsoftware.com/products.php

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

Hi,

Thanks but I tried this once before with Starboard software.

Take a look at
"FLEXnet AdminStudio SMS Edition"
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E6-5350-455B-A973-FABEC35462E5&displaylang=en

Some Tools are fully funktional even without an SMS.
They have a "Install Monitoring" Utility, which works sometimes better,
then the Snapshop Tools. This tools conversts the monitored installation
into a MSI.

Mark

 

[Andy Inglis]

Thank you all very much for your appreciated response. I am going to
attempt to use the FLEXnet software as advise.

Wish me luck and thanks again.

Andy