[wpkg-users] WPKG on Windows 8

[Rainer Meier]

Hello,

Actually I have decided today to spend some time on Windows 8 migration today. I 
try to just report my results without any intention to start a war about user 
interface discussions. So if you're going to reply please focus on technical 
discussion of issues.

Here's a summary of my findings:

I did install WPKG Client 1.3.14 64-bit on Windows 8 Professional 64-bit. I have 
used wpkg.js version 1.3.1-RC12.
The configuration I have used is the same as for Windows 7. This includes some 
post-installation changes I typically use:

sc config wpkgservice depend= NSI/Tdx/Afd/tcpip/LanmanWorkstation
sc config wpkgservice start= delayed-auto

This will run the service delayed and usually works fine even for network 
adapters reporting link ready even if the driver is not ready yet (see 
discussions on the list for Windows 7).

My configuration also includes service termination after execution so the 
service is not permanently running.


Overall the migration to Windows 8 was very smooth. The only thing I really had 
to adapt was to create a new profile for Windows 8 machines which exclude some 
packages. In my case:
- Exclude FlashPlayer Active-X
   (embedded in IE 10, so I prefer it to be updated via Windows Update;
   although the version embedded currently is outdated)
- Exclude installation of Microsoft Security Essentials
   MSE is actually integrated into Windows Defender now. It won't install on
   Windows 8 and report incompatibility
- Exclude installation of Internet Explorer as IE10 is included already

And that's it basically. WPKG will just deploy all the packages fine.


Some issues:
- CAUTION: I found that the WPKG service is not restarted when you shut down the 
machine and re-start it. This is due to the new Windows 8 session resume 
feature. During shutdown Session0 will not be terminated but will be hibernated 
instead. So when the machine is powered on again the system session is restored 
from hibernate rather than fully booted. On one hand this provides very short 
boot times but on the other hand services are not refreshed. So crashed 
(unexpectedly terminated) services remain dead and also WPKG service is not 
re-launched as some people might expect.
Please also note that if you initiate a REBOOT rather than shutdown/restart, 
then session 0 is actually terminated completely and then of course also WPKG is 
re-launched then.
So if your users always just shut down properly, then you might have issues 
getting WPKG re-launched without putting a task scheduler entry which (re)starts 
the WPKG service based on schedule.
You have to expect that such installations will run WPKG basically once a month 
(after Windows Update installation and required real reboot) unless you're going 
to disable the feature entirely:
- (Desktop) Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options
   Click "Chose what the power buttons do" and disable "Turn on fast startup"

But I do not recommend this since fast startup actually provides really 
accelerated startup on many machines (especially those without SSD).

I will have to check how WPKG-GP complies with Windows 8.


- Only partially a WPKG issue but I found Windows 8 creating pinned "Start" 
items for every installed application installed for the user which installs 
them. When additional users log on to the machine they will find empty "Start" 
panel so users will have to pick all the programs from the "All apps" menu only 
found when right-clicking in the start screen. I am working on a script which 
pins most important applications (Word, Excel, LibreOffice, Firefox...) to the 
start panel for new users via RunOnce registry key. So on very first login the 
start panel will not only contain app tiles.



Overall WPKG seems to work pretty well on Windows 8 without any changes. 
Although packages might need some updates and new profiles will have to be 
defined in some cases. The good thing is that we won't have to care about app 
deployment as they are installed and updated via the store. Not sure if it would 
be even possible to deploy apps via command-line from sources other than the 
market or install them globally. I found already strange that in a multi-user 
environment user A won't see apps installed by user B at all even if the appl is 
free (well, might be license policy driven). As far as I know Microsoft at least 
promised providing tools to deploy apps in corporate environment to all users 
but I guess it requires a system management center installation which is perhaps 
a bit overkill in smaller networks or at smaller schools.



Pending:
- Try WPKG-GP
- Get informationa bout app deployment and policies