Once the data is at the server and you've made the Registry changes,
activate the installation at the workstation with Control Panel, Add/Remove
Programs, Install, as Screen 3 shows. Notice the new Network Install tab shown
in Screen 4. Click this tab, select the program you want from the list, and
choose Install to install the software across the network to your local system.
Of course, you must inform each user that software is available for
installation. I usually do this part with email and let users install the
software at their convenience.
Installing Internet Explorer 4.0
When Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 4.0 (IE4), everyone on the network
will want to install it. Rather than download it to each system, you can use
this Registry technique to download it once to the server, extract the files,
and use one instance of the files to install the program to every system on the
network.
Although the application will be the same for NT Workstation and Win95, the
setup program is different (because of differences in the operating systems).
I'll give you the steps for installing IE4 in NT (for Win95 systems, change the
filenames and descriptions accordingly).
At the server, download the compressed installation file from Microsoft
(ntie40.exe). Create a new folder (NTIE4) under the Install share you created
previously. Execute the downloaded file, and extract the files to the new NTIE4
folder. Edit the apps.inf file, and add the following line under the
[appinstalllist] section (replacing \\server1 with the name of your server), as
shown in Screen 5:
Internet Explorer 4.0 for NT=\\server1\install\NTIE4\setup.exe
Go to the Add/Remove Programs
applet in the Control Panel of one of your workstations and select the
Network Install tab, as shown in Screen 6. Highlight Internet Explorer 4.0 for
NT, and click Install.
Unlock the Potential
Using a simple Registry change can unlock an undocumented feature of NT 4.0
and Win95. Installing software with this tip is very fast, and very easy. It
certainly doesn't do everything SMS and other software-management packages can
do, but the cost is right.
RELATED ARTICLES IN WINDOWS NT MAGAZINE
Christa Anderson,
- "Designing Unattended NT Installations," March 1997
Nathaniel Bowman,
- "SMS Server and Client Setup," June 1996
- "SMS
Server and Client Setup, Part 2," July 1996
Mark Eddins,
- Customizing Systems Management Server," January 1997
"
- Custom
Graphics for SMS Custom Inventory Objects," March 1997
Spyros Sakellariadis,
- "SMS: Inventory Your Desktop Systems, Part 1," May 1996
- "SMS:
Inventory Your Desktop Systems, Part 2," June 1996
- "SMS:
Inventory Your Desktop Systems, Part 3," July 1996