Options for upgrading 100 desktops to IE6?

[Philip Herlihy]

I've been asked to find a convenient way of upgrading the browser on about
100 desktop machines to IE6. We'd prefer to avoid 100 visits with a CD!
The network is Novell, but there are Win2K servers available. The desktops
are Windows 98 or 2000 with an occasional XP.

I'd be grateful for suggestions of what options I might look into - I don't
know where to start!

 

[Wouter]

I've been asked to find a convenient way of upgrading the
browser on about 100 desktop machines to IE6. We'd prefer
to avoid 100 visits with a CD! The network is Novell, but
there are Win2K servers available. The desktops are Windows
98 or 2000 with an occasional XP.

I'd be grateful for suggestions of what options I might look
into - I don't know where to start!

Keywords:
W2K Domain
Group Policy
IEAK

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Keywords:
W2K Domain
Group Policy
IEAK

Just what I needed - thanks! I've identified the Internet Explorer
Administration Kit (which I've never used) and Group Policies (which I
dabbled with once, ages ago). I'll study these in depth.

Of course, there are usually six different ways of doing anything - are
there any alternatives I should consider before burning my bridges?

 

[GO]

Keywords:
W2K Domain
Group Policy
IEAK

What about Novell's Zen Works? I'm not sure how difficult it is to get up
and running (as it was already installed/configured at my last place of
work) but it was really easy to push out applications and such to end users.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

What about Novell's Zen Works? I'm not sure how difficult it is to get up
and running (as it was already installed/configured at my last place of
work) but it was really easy to push out applications and such to end
users.

Thanks - Novell is (and is likely to remain) a mystery to me, but I'll pass
on the suggestion to my Novell counterpart.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Just what I needed - thanks! I've identified the Internet Explorer
Administration Kit (which I've never used)

and which is now seriously deprecated by Micorosoft.

and Group Policies (which I
dabbled with once, ages ago). I'll study these in depth.

Are we talking using "Advertising" here??

Of course, there are usually six different ways of doing anything - are
there any alternatives I should consider before burning my bridges?

Yes.

Be sure to understand the terminology of the IEAK. Specifically the
difference between the "customization wizard" and "profile wizard" (or
what ever it's called), further be very careful not to confuse the
settings in IEAK wtih those of group policy.

IEAK was around long before group policy and was designed to work
without AD or GPOs. It has the ability to push config settings using an
"AutoConfig" script. However, if you're going to use group policy, you
must NOT try to use AutoConfig.

If you're going to use GPOs, here's the basic rules:

1. Use customization wizard to build a "flat" browser to a UNC path. Do
not import an INS file, and make sure AVS is ticked. The previous
sentence relates to the "Advanced" button of the first page of the
wizard. Choose the "hands-free" or "silent" option. Do _not_ try to
press the "updates" button at the AVS screen. Feel free to choose
settings in the wizard, except those at the end where it says "policies
and restrictions". Do not try to include patches either. It will now
build IE6SP1 to the target folder.

2. Install the browser to a test machine (not the one you use to build
it). Test the browser on that machine without group policy, test it with
a roaming user, then a local user, then back again - is the roaming HKCU
still in-tact? Apply a test GPO with desired settings to a test user and
test that user on that machine, then do lots more testing. Disable the
policy - what happens now? All ok?

3. Roll it out to the other machines and decide how and when any new
group policy should be applied. You'll probably only be sending user
settings here.

In the case of (3), I've never used the MSI and "Advertising" thing so
can't comment on that. I tend to run the CMD from the UNC.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Thanks - will study carefully.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Philip,

I've just run into a problem with IEAK. I only noticed it because of NOT
applying a user group policy while testing the initial build.

I installed my build to a laptop, logged on as a local user - everything
looked fine, I then logged on as a domain user and IEAK branding over-wrote
the settings in the roaming user's HKCU. After logging the user back onto
his own machine, the settings were carried across!

In other words, the IEAK over-wrote the HKCU of the roaming user, meaning
their settings were WRONG when they logged back onto their own computer.

The problem stems from the way IEAK "branding" works. This was a pre-GPO
technology and I believe it basically "re-brands" internet Explorer EVERY
time a new user loggs on. This is not ideal, and certainly not what you want
when using a different technology such as group policy to manage the
settings. The branding consists of a file called install.ins that gets
copied to IE's folder in \program files\ . I believe this file is being
processed every time a new user loggs on. There's a log file you can look at
in the user's profile \Application Data\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\brndlog.txt. If you check this file after a user logs on, you can
see if branding was applied.

I'm not sure of the correct way to deal with this.

Of course, if GPOs are applied to all users, you'd never know any of this
was happening, but I'd prefer to find a clean way of doing this, otherwise
it means settings are constantly fighting with each other and being
over-written.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Thanks! Still puzzling over options with my counterpart (who has more
control over the relevant servers than I'm allowed) but I'll look into this.