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Deploy PhotoScape via Group Policy

Chris — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:37:12 +0000

PhotoScape is a really nice, simple, easy to use bit of FREE photo editing software. It offers a lot of basic features without ever complicating matters – ideal for people just learning to play with their photos, or anyone who just doesn’t want the hassle of having to learn a more complex piece of software.

To deploy this via group policy, you will need to use a startup script, as it is not possible to extract an MSI to use with the usual method. However it’s a really simple script so should be no problem to get it up and running.

Just share the installer executable somewhere on your server (we usually have a shared software directory for this purpose), and add the following to a startup script (replacing the path with the correct one for your situation, of course)…

“\\SVR\Software\PhotoScapeInstall\setup.exe” /S

Note the upper-case S in the switch – it will not function with a lower-case S. This will install desktop and quick-launch shortcuts, which unfortunately there seems to be no way around. However, a good point is that it does not install Google Toolbar, which is an option selected by default if you use the wizard install.

Have fun!

Vista Hangs on Logon, very slow at Welcome Screen

Henry — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:49:36 +0000

We had this problem on our Vista machines in the office whereby they would get stuck during the logon process. We couldn’t for the life of us pinpoint the problem, as the logon information is very vague. Then I remembered a neat feature from XP which is also available in Vista. The key was to enabled Verbose logon information to find out what exactly was going on:

If you are using a stand-alone computer or if you want to enable verbose status messages on only one computer, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.
In the right pane, double-click Verbose vs normal status messages.
Click Enabled, and then click OK.
Close Group Policy Object Editor, and then click OK.

Run a gpupdate /force if you can. After doing this, we noticed our machines were hanging at the printers group policy. After disabling the offending printer policy, logon worked fine again. As techies we decided to leave Verbose Status Messages switched on, as it can actually be very useful. Check out Chris’s previous post for more on our printer issues.

Deploy Pivot Stickfigure Animator via Group Policy

Chris — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:53:47 +0000

An easy one, this. Infact, it seems far too easy. Just share Pivot’s setup.exe in some folder on your server, and add the following to a startup script attached to your GPO (with the correct server name and share paths applied, of course).

\\SVR\Share\Path\setup.exe /quiet

That’s it! It installs near instantaneously on newer machines as well – well done that man.