[wpkg-users] When should I use WPKG Installer?

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

Adam Williams wrote:
> The only documentation I see for WPKG Installer is at 
> http://www.wpkg.org/index.php/WPKG-Installer
> 
> but it doesn't answer my question, which is, when should I use WPKG 
> Installer?  I've got my \\roark\wpkg\wpkg-install.bat which runs:
> 
> [root at roark wpkg]# cat wpkg-install.bat
> copy \\roark\wpkg\files\srvany.exe %SystemRoot%\System32
> copy \\roark\wpkg\files\instsrv.exe %SystemRoot%\System32
> instsrv "Windows Packager" "%SystemRoot%\System32\srvany.exe"
> \\roark\wpkg\files\scripten.exe /Q /R:N
> cscript.exe \\roark\wpkg\files\install-service.js
> net start "Windows Packager"
> 
> and I use that to install WPKG on my clients, and hosts.xml, 
> packages.xml, and profiles.xml work fine for me.  So I am confused, when 
> should I be using WPKG Installer, and what benefits does it have over 
> what I'm doing now?

You should use it if you don't feel familiar with editing 
"install-service.js", installing srvany, and using instsrv... (looks 
like you're familiar, though).

It has other advantages, though:

1. You can easily specify a username/password for the software/wpkg 
share. Using a non-privileged user credentials here is recommended.

2. You can easily specify a username/password for the user actually 
starting wpkg.js. Using SYSTEM user is recommended, as it's the most 
secure (even if someone steals your software share password - see point 
1 above - he can't do administrative things with it), but you can use 
any user you want - local admin, domain admin etc. (it was reported that 
some software is problematic to install when the username is not 
Administrator).

3. You can start a chosen program/script before and after starting 
"cscript ... wpkg.js ...". This means, you can start any other 
administrative task you want, for which you don't really want to use 
WPKG. For example, on Windows 2000, WPKG won't work if Internet Explorer 
is not installed - you could deploy it this way.

4. People using schtasks to start WPKG noticed it has no command line 
mode on Windows 2000 (unless you use a version from XP and "hack it" 
with a hexeditor - not everyone wants/can do it) - with the installer, 
it's not the case anymore.

5. People using schtasks to start WPKG noticed it won't work, if the 
credentials given were for a domain administrator, but the machine 
wasn't connected to the domain yet. It won't work even if the machine 
later connects to the domain - with the installer, it's not the case 
anymore.

6. You can easily choose if the apps should be started in the background 
(no one sees anything is deployed), or in the foreground (you want to 
debug things, or you want your users to see what's deployed, and you're 
sure they won't touch it).

7. Updating settings is easy - they are saved in the XML file.


Feel free to comment.


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org






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