Pushing software with a GPO

[acl03]

I am in the beginning stages of starting to push some software to our clients. The 2 apps we're starting with are Symantec Antivirus 10 and Adobe Reader 8. We have various versions of both of these apps installed throughout our userbase.

Does anyone have a good resource that may be a good read before I start doing this? I have found a few articles but nothing has given a real in-depth description of how software installation works with GPO's, describing all of the available options.

Anyway, here's a few questions I have before I get started.

1) Will pushing software to machines that already have older versions of 1 or more of the apps automatically get their software updated?

2) Will pushing software to machines that have up-to-date versions of the apps get the app installed over top? A second copy? Or will the GPO ignore that pc?

3) How do we track which pc's have succesfully gotten an app installed via GPO's? (If possible).

Thanks!







Thanks,
Andrew

 

[markdmac]

Take a look at these sites:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2190

http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=189

http://sojoe.info/2006/12/09/a-step...ly-installing-and-configuring-adobe-reader-8/

Now to your questions:
1. depends ont he software. Some products will silently remove older versions some will not.
2. Unless the software was originally installed via GPO, the GPO will reinstall over the top.
3. You would need to move to SMS for this kind of reporting.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript