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How can I publish an MSI file?
John Savill
January 8, 2000
2 Min Read
A. With Group Policies in Windows 2000 you can do far more thanjust restrict and set certain registry entries. You can setstartup/shutdown/login/logoff scripts, redirect folders like My Documents andpublish applications (and more). Its the last item that interests us and thereare four main options:
Assign to a computer
Publish to a computer
Assign to a user
Publish to a user
When you assign an application to a user its icons are setup and the softwareinstalled on first usage, if you assign to a computer it will be installed thenext time the computer starts up. If you publish an application the user has theoption of installing the application via the Add/Remove Programs control panelapplet.
Any deployed application cannot be uninstalled by the user. Publishedapplications can be uninstalled as they are optional.
You can publish/assign applications to any group policy object which meansyou can assign applications on a per domain, per site or per Organizational Unitbasis.
To assign an application to a GPO perform the following:
Start the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in (Start - Programs - Administrative Tools - Active Directory Users and Computers)
Right click on the domain, OU or site and select Properties
Select the 'Group Policy' tab
Select the GPO you wish to assign/publish the application with and click edit
Select either 'Computer Configuration' or 'User Configuration' depending on if the application is for a user or computer assignment
Select the Software SettingsSoftware installation branch
Right click on 'Software installation' and select New - Package from the context menu
Select the MSI file you wish to deploy, make sure you access via a network path or clients will be unable to install it, e.g. \titanicdatawinzipwinzip.msi. Click Open
You will have the option to either publish/assign or advanced publish/assign. Click OK. If you select advance you have options to select an existing package that this one will upgrade and various other settings including Security
The program will now be shown under the Software installation branch and will be assigned/published to any user/computer who has the GPO applied to them.
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