Deploying Windows Installer 3.1 itself!

[Marcos]

Hello,

I'm interested in finding out some best practices for deploying the
"Windows Installer" itself in a large workstation environment.

From what i've seen, you can't deploying it using the Windows Installer

runtime/mechanism itself, which makes sense to an extent since it's
udpdating itself.

So, what are the other deployment options/methods? Specifically i'm
looking to do this via GPOs.

Hope this makes sense to all.

P.S I've read the posts regarding this topic but I still don't seen
answer, aside from the vague mention of custom scripting.


Thanks.

 

[Mervyn King]

Hi

There are only 3 ways you can deploy Windows Installer 3.1.

(1). Deploy using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003
(2). Use the Windows Update Site
(3). Use Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

In your case, I think the best solution would be to use Windows Server
Update Services (WSUS), First and foremost; it's FREE, secondly, You can
test and approve updates from the public Windows Update site before
deployment on the corporate intranet. Deployment takes place on a schedule
created by you the administrator. You can also configure Automatic Updates
to download and install missing updates on a computer automatically. WSUS
provides options for managing client computers in both Active Directory and
non-Active Directory environments. In addition, you can configure how client
computers communicate with WSUS servers by using Group Policy or by managing
servers or client computers through the API.

The Windows Update Site would be ok, if, you had a very small network,
Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS)2003 is very good choice, but, a
very expensive choice as well! Choose it if you've got a VERY Large network.

Remember, Group Policy can work hand in hand with Windows Server Update
Services (WSUS), but Critical Windows patches, software updates, driver
updates, and feature packs can only be deployed using the above 3.

Hope all goes well

Mervyn King