Use Group Policy To Deploy Applications In Windows Server 2003 Part I

Through the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and group policies you can configure a Windows Server 2003 server to automatically distribute software to Windows clients by either assigning or publishing applications. Although the basics of this process are fairly straightforward, there are situations that will require you to use advanced publish and assign options.

For example, if you were installing Office XP onto a system that already had Office 2000, you would probably want Office XP to replace Office 2000 rather than keeping both versions. Advanced publish and assign options allow you to do this and more.

Getting started
To access the advanced publishing and assigning options, open the MMC, add the Group Policy snap-in, and navigate to the Software Installation container. Right-click on the Software Installation container to access the Software Installation properties sheet. Select the default location of the Windows installer package that you wish to push to your client machines, select the Advanced radio button and click OK. Doing so will return you to the main Group Policy screen.

Then, right-click on the Software Installation container and select New | Package from the resulting menu to display the Open dialog box which lists the contents of default locations that you selected. Next, select the exact Windows Installer (.msi) file you wish to push and click OK. The installation properties window for your chosen .msi file will then be displayed. You can then configure the advanced publish or assign options for your installation through the series of tabs at the top of the window.

The Deployment tab
On this properties sheet you will find the Deployment tab, where you can select whether you want to assign or publish the application. There are also three check boxes that control auto installation by file extension activation, automatic uninstallation, and whether or not the package is visible in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.

At the bottom of the Deployment tab, you’ll notice an Advanced button. If you click this button, you’ll see a dialog box that contains some advanced diagnostic information, such as the name of the automatic installation script that you’re creating. This dialog box also contains a check box you can select to ignore language options when deploying the package.

The Upgrades tab
The Upgrades tab contains Add and Remove buttons that you can use to build a list of applications that the new application should replace. Once you’ve created the list, select the check box to make the new package a mandatory upgrade to the previously existing package.

When you click the Add button you’ll have the option to select a package from the current group policy object or from another specific group policy object. You can also decide whether Windows should uninstall the old package prior to installing the new package or if Windows can perform an upgrade by installing the new package on top of the previously existing application.

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