Matt, I use a hybrid approach, so far as I can I install everything at build time, using Unattended. For major additions I have a logoff script that sets up todo and auto logon for the next startup to log in with a (local) admin account and perform an Unattended style install of the new packages.
For minor additions, or emergency stuff like forcing an anti-virus check I use the occasional logon / logoff script. There are pros/cons for each The unattended style install works well, so long as your users do not fiddle whilst it is in progress - a screen sized spalsh hidding the display helps, but for the machines that our students use (I run a school network - ages up to 18) that is not sufficient - I currently resort to doing the update a room at a time when they are not in school and making sure we are back to the normal login screen before I leave. The logon/of method works well only with software that needs no interaction on screen, completly silent installs are probably OK, but I have had some that fail if they cannot display on screen (well just one actually - but that is when I stopped looking). Also script processing has time limits, and you need to make sure the script only runs once - I just write a small text file on completion and use an 'if file exists' type construct to determine if the script should run. I guess the time limit would largely be avoided if you used the script to set up a scheduled task for install - rebooting the machine when required then becomes an issue because a user may then be logged in. I am rapidly moving to a positon that updating software will be done by periodically rebuilding the machine from scratch - a suite of 30 machines will build overnight & be ready for use the following morning. How practical that is for you depends on your local setup - our workstations are considered disposable, no user data is allowed to be stored locally (well - it is, but there are no complaints allowed if I walk up & zap the machine on a whim) Others may have their own opinions, but this is working for me - although I am always looking for ways to improve Regards Kevin Lawry -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Matt Palmer Sent: 28 December 2003 08:25 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Autologin vs scheduled tasks I'm a bit of a newbie to Unattended, but by *ghod* I've been hanging out for a tool like this for ages. I tend to subscribe to the philosophies espoused at http://www.infrastructures.org/ (which, incidentally, led me to unattended in the first place). I want to be able to run something periodically, or at least on startup before user login, to maintain the machine at peak condition. Now, todo.pl would appear to do that for me, but it doesn't really because it needs autologin, and I want this to happen while users are logging in, if not before, and without handing the peons an Admin console. This led me to Scheduled Tasks and how it can trigger something to run at startup. Woopee! says I. Just copy a .JOB file in c:\winnt\tasks (on Win2K at least) and I'm done. At least, I hope so. My questions to this august forum are: 1) Has anyone else looked at this, tried it, and found it good/bad/otherwise? 2) Is there any particular reason why todo.pl uses Autologin rather than a startup task to do it's job? - Matt ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials. Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills. Sign up for IBM's Free Linux Tutorials. Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin. Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click _______________________________________________ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials. Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills. Sign up for IBM's Free Linux Tutorials. Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin. Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click _______________________________________________ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
