Making Software Available to Users and Computers

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

You can make software available to users in Control Panel**.** By using Add or Remove Programs, users can manage software on their own computers. However, you can control what software is available to users in Add or Remove Programs by using Group Policy settings.

Add or Remove Programs includes an active Web link for each application, which provides users with the support information they need to install certain applications. However, you can overwrite the default link by using the software installation extension of Group Policy. The support link then corresponds to your internal product support resources.

You can also have this Web link point to a support page that includes information such as an FAQ about a specified application, a help desk article about using the application, or instructions for requesting support. This can save time for both users and help desk personnel.

Linking to an Internal Resource Example

When deploying Office, an administrator at a corporation replaced the default product support link with an internal link to the organization’s product support resource. This allowed users to request assistance for an Office issue from an internal resource instead of by going outside the organization for product support.

Deploying Applications in a Managed Environment Example

The administrators at an organization use Group Policy to deploy and manage software. Each time they deploy software in their organization, they prepare the software for Windows Installer, and then they distribute, target, and install the software.

The sales personnel of the organization require two new sales-based applications: a sales database and an application for order entry. The sales personnel include outside sales representatives, inside sales representatives, sales management, and clerical sales staff. These users are dispersed across four OUs in the domain infrastructure. Each OU is named for the five sales office locations: Seattle Sales, San Jose Sales, Boston Sales, Atlanta Sales, and Dublin Sales. Each OU contains up to 150 users.

The software administrator plans to publish the two new sales applications for all sales personnel. The following is the process the software administrator follows to deploy the new sales applications. The software administrator performs the following tasks:

  1. Obtains the Windows Installer Packages. The new sales software comes complete from the manufacturer with Windows Installer packages (SalesDB.msi and OrderEntry.msi). Each application is less than 50 MB.

    Note

    • Because the author of the application provided the .msi files, the administrator did not need to reauthor or repackage the software.

  2. Creates a test environment in the lab to verify that the installation works as planned.

  3. Places the software distribution point servers as close as possible to the users. In this case, the IT administrator uses the existing software distribution points in each of the U.S. sales offices because they are only 20 percent used. For the Dublin, Ireland, sales office, the IT administrator sets up a new software distribution point file server because none currently exists.

  4. Creates the file shares on the software distribution points, and then copies the packages to the shares.

  5. Uses DFS to manage the network traffic. The administrator configures DFS to manage the network traffic during software installation time because DFS offers load-sharing among servers and increases availability by distributing the same data across multiple servers. This helps balance the software installation traffic and protects against bottlenecks.

  6. Creates a new GPO named Sales Personnel, specifying that these two applications be published to the members of the sales office organizational units. Before linking the GPO, the administrator runs GPMC Modeling to further test the deployment.

  7. Links the GPO.

  8. Breaks up the software deployment into four phases to minimize network traffic. However, the administrator does not want to create four GPOs. The deployment is performed Monday through Thursday for up to 150 users per day by using e-mail. On Monday the administrator sends half of the users in Atlanta and half of the users in Boston an e-mail message telling them that the new applications, "Sales Database" and "Order Entry," are now available for installation under the Sales Applications category in Add or Remove Programs. The following day, the administrator contacts the other half of the users in the Atlanta and Boston sales offices. The administrator follows the same process for all sales offices until all sales personnel are informed about the new software.

While the deployment is progressing, IT administration supports both the previously installed sales applications and the newly deployed sales applications.

After deployment, the administrator allows a grace period for users to upgrade to the new version. The administrator informs the users that the old sales database and order entry applications will expire 30 days after the new software is fully deployed. This encourages all sales personnel to install and use the new software in a timely manner.