Personal website of Dave Hope » Microsoft Deployment

Skype Transform / Deploying Skype

Dave — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:28:18 +0000

First things first, grab the Skype business version from the Skype business site. This has no adverts and is an MSI file for simple deployment.

You’ll probably want my Skype Transform which will remove the desktop shortcut and prevent Skype from auto starting with windows.

You can now deploy Skype in your prefered way (Group Policy, SMS, Microsoft Deployment etc). If you’re using Microsoft Deployment, you can use the following command:

msiexec /i SkypeSetup.msi /quiet TRANSFORMS="NoDesktopShortcutNoAutorun.mst"

Deploying Visual Studio 2008 Express via Microsoft Deployment

Dave — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:25:05 +0000

So, you want to deploy VS2008 Express? – I did (We use it in our testing VMs).

1: Download the offline installer
First things first, get the offline installer for Visual Studio 2008 Express.

2: Extract the files from the ISO
Grab whichever edition you want to deploy from the ISO you’ve just downloaded (i’m just interested in c#). Setup a a new Application in the Deployment Workbench with these files, using the following for you Quiet install command:

ixpvcs.exe /q:a /c:”msiexec /i vs_setup.msi VSEXTUI=1 ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress /qn”

3: Dependancies
You’ll need to add in dependancies for Windows Installer 3.1 and the .net 2.0 framework. See this article for information on how to do just that.

Just like to say thanks to Aaron Stebner who provided the basis for this on his blog. All i’ve just is update the patch for vs2008 rather than 2005.

Deploying SQL Server with Microsoft Deployment

Dave — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:07:50 +0000

This guide focuses on VS2005 Express Edition with advanced services, though this applies to any version of SQL2005.

The first thing you’ll need to do is copy the install files to your distribution share via the Deployment Workbench. Be sure to choose a directory structure without spaces as this seems to cause problems during setup.

Once you’ve got your Application folder setup, create a file called ‘template.ini’ in the same directory and add the following contents:
[Options] ADDLOCAL=All INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER SQLBROWSERACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" SQLACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" AGTACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" ASACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" RSACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" SQLBROWSERAUTOSTART=1 SQLAUTOSTART=1 AGTAUTOSTART=0 ASAUTOSTART=0 RSAUTOSTART=0 SECURITYMODE=SQL SAPWD=9C1_GM3Z@U*+ DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=0 ERRORREPORTING=0 SQMREPORTING=0

That will install all components, and set the local SA password to ’9C1_GM3Z@U*+’. This needs to be a complex password, or setup will fail.

Once that’s in place, save the file and use the following quiet install command:

setup.exe /qn /settings \\london.nwtraders.msft\Distribution$\Applications\Microsoft_SQL2005_Express\template.ini

If you haven’t already got them added, you’ll need to add in dependencies for the .Net Framework 2.0 and Windows Installer 3.1

For .Net 2.0 extract dotnetfx.exe, add to your applications distribution folder via the Deployment Workbench and use the following quiet install command install.exe /q

For Windows Installer 3.1 (if required) download, add to your applications distribution folder in the normal mannger and use WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe /quiet as the quiet install command.

You should only need Windows Installer 3.1 if you plan on deploying it to Windows XP, so add a platform restriction (not sure what the official naming is) but choose ‘This can run only on the specified client platforms’ but on the ‘Details’ tab.

Changing “IT Organization” text

Dave — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:49:44 +0000

After a bit of investigation and asking around I thought I’d share this simple Microsoft Deployment tip.

On the actions window by default it reads “IT Organization”, to change this add the following to CustomSetting.ini

_SMSTSOrgName=NWTraders

There, it’s that simple.

Microsoft Deployment & WSUS

Dave — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:22:25 +0000

Microsoft have recently launched the latest version of BDD, now called “Microsoft Deployment” If you ask me, BDD sounded better but oh well.

If like me you don’t want to create packages for each and every windows update for your deployment image, here’s how you can point the build process at your WSUS server.

Firstly, create the following file and store it in your ‘Scripts’ folder, for example ” C:\Distribution\Scripts\CustWsusSettings.wsf”:

' //*************************************************************************** ' // ***** Script Header ***** ' // ' // File: CustWsusSettings.wsf ' // ' // Purpose: Deploy WSUS Settings ' // ' // Customer Build Version: 1.0.0 ' // Customer Script Version: 1.0.0 ' // ' // Customer History: ' // ' // ***** End Header ***** ' //***************************************************************************
Be sure to change the sWSUSServer to point to your Wsus server. Now open up your task list in the Deployment Console and create a new command line task of the following:

cscript.exe "%SCRIPTROOT%\CustWsusSettings.wsf"

And as if by magic your updates will now come from your WSUS box from install.