Installing Quicktime 7 through Active Directory

Further to yesterdays posting I have also been trying to install Quicktime 7.62 to around 200 computers through the Active Directory application Software Installation GPO. As with Sketchup Apple did not provide an MSI file, but the quicktimeinstaller.exe file they do provide does extract to an MSI in the following folders when you double-click it and get to the “Welcome to the QuickTime 7 Installer” Screen:

Under Vista: C:\Users\User\Local Settings\temp\

Under WinXP: C:\documents and settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\

Under the above folders look for a folder who’s name is similar to IXP484.TMP (the string of three numbers appears to be random and changes each time you open the QuickTimeInstaller.exe) and copy the Quicktime.msi file to a place accessible by your workstations on a network.

After assigning the Quicktime.msi file in a GPO you will need to do one more thing to get the application to install. Right click on quicktime in your list of applications to be installed under software installation and select properties.

Note that the language says Chinese (Taiwan). If this package was left as is, the installation would not occur unless your installed XP/Vista systems were this language.

Now goto the Deployment Tab and click advanced towards the bottom. Select “Ignore language when deploying this package”. Click Ok, Ok and close down the Group Policy Editor and Group Policy Management

Deploy Google Sketchup 7 using Active Directory

Google only distributes google sketchup as an exe file which is not assignable through Active Directory Group Policy. This exe is only a wrapper for the msi file though and this msi is able to be assigned to computers.

To get the msi file double-click on the GoogleSketchUpWEN.exe downloaded and when its at the “Welcome to the google sketchup 7 setup wizard” open windows explorer and goto the folder:

Under Vista: C:\Users\User\Local Settings\temp\

Under WinXP: C:\documents and settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\

and look for a folder that looks like 7zS4211.tmp, This folder was named differently on the machines I tried but it always started with “7z” and ended in “.tmp”.

Within that folder is “GoogleSketchUp7.msi” and a “setup.exe” which can now be assigned to your computers using the Active Directory Group Policy Software Installation settings or installed using a command line to machines individually using a login script.

Create a Printer Port from the Command Line using VB Script

To create a printer port using the command line you can use a microsoft utility found in the c:\Windows\System32 folder on Windows XP/2003 systems called prnport.vbs.

Using this VBScript makes it easy to add multiple printer ports for a new system or to migrate to a new port range for an existing server.

Open up a command prompt and cd to c:\windows\system32 then type the below command:

cscript prnport.vbs -a -r IP_10.0.0.254 -h 10.0.0.254 -o  raw -n 9100 -me

This will a Raw IP printer port with the Address 10.0.0.254 with the port number 9100, it will also enable SNMP.

If you putting the above command within a DOS FOR loop you can create a tonne of ports in a few seconds. An Example is below:

for %i in (254,253,252,251,249,248,247,245,244,243,242,241) do cscript prnport.vbs -a -r IP_10.0.0.%i -h 10.0.0.%i -o raw -n 9100 -me

This will create the ports 10.0.0.241 through to 10.0.0.254

More info on this command using the help found in the VBScript file itself.:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cscript.exe prnport.vbs /?
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

Remark:
The last example will try to get the device settings at the specified IP address.
If a device is detected, then a TCP port is added with the preferred settings for that device.