philipnet

SMS is becoming like second nature to me.

I know it so well, the moment that a user called me up last week and requested that QuickTime be installed on their PC, I could immediately visual the whole process – the collections, the advert, the check boxes; is seem absolutely obvious as to how to do it.

Even thought I had never done it before!

First off, I created a software collections entry in the root on the Collections namespace. I really hate the root directory filling up with gunk so I wanted to put all of this in it’s own hierarchy.

Then I created a QuickTime sub-collection. It was the standard SQL select query using “in”: select * from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.Name in ("x", "y" ...)

Next; find the software. I refreshed to go with the iTunes combination, thus I embarked on a bit of Googling and found that I just wanted the file QuickTimeFullInstaller.exe . Another Google found that and allowed me to produce the software package. (Aside: it was the very latest version of QuickTime and didn’t try to download any updates via the internet  ).

That was simplicity in itself – but this was where the check boxes came in.

Under the “Environment” tab were the key attributes that needed setting. I was going to get the user to install the Package themselves (*), but without granting them administrative rights. So I first set “Program can run” to “Only where a user is logged on” and then set “Run with administrative rights” and enabled “Allow users to interact with this program”. Finally, under the “Advanced” tab, I ensured that “Suppress program notifications” was unchecked (it is by default).

Finally I created the advert.

To test that this concoction worked, I got my machine to refresh it’s machine policy and a few minutes later, the “New Program” appeared in the System tray / Notification area. I ran through the installation of QuickTime (again) and it worked without hitch.

Of course the next step was the actual deployment of the software on the user’s machine. Checking the advert status many minutes later I discovered that the user’s machine had received the advert, so I used Remote Tools to bring up the user’s desktop. It was logged on, but the user wasn’t there. So I performed the installation myself.

It was so easily and straight forward I would definitely do it again. I wonder what other software we get similar requests for? …

*: I was remembering something to do with Louise, but that’s a bit off topic for this post  .