Software Deployment

Paul,

It probably is unable to remove it since exe's/dll's are in use. Have you tried including a script that would check if the application is running and terminate it it so? (Provided that's what you want to do).

- J

A little logical thought will tell you that it's somewhat sub-optimal to try and uninstall a VPN client whilst the user is using that client. The client is, in effect, a network adapter and as soon as you uninstall it, the user has no network.

What you need to do is copy the source media locally and trigger the uninstall/re-install from there. You may want to trigger a reboot at the end of the install phase, or leave it to the user to do that.

Thanks jcarri06 and VBScab,
well, that is indeed what i did. unfortunately didnt get to this posts as i was burried in this, but here's what i did for any one who's in the deep end as i was.
i created a package via WISE, and three WISE scripts.
1. a very simple script to copy all the files + our custom .PCF files ( connection entries )
2. a script to uninstall the old. this included a 30 second timeout and a display message to tell the user that their VPN will die in 30 and to close all the apps, two TASKKILL to kill the vpngui and vptray processes, a stopservice for the "cisco systems inc, vpn service" this was completed with a force reboot
3. a script to install the new VPN client, and do a reboot.
4. here's the deal. i used our SMS service to package all three, BUT i chained the items 2 and 3. the distributable worked in such a way that the advertisement was the 3rd item and it triggered the 2nd to run and complete as a prerequisite. this is easily possible in SMS packaging.
Deployment:
Item 1 was pushed out a week before the 2nd one so everyone got their VPN files locakky in to C:\Winnt\xxx folder ( xxx was our own folder name).
then went the item 3, chanied to item 2.
pushed to 2500+ laptops, we had a 91% success rate. needless to say some broke and some goofy errors came, but all in all this was good.

if any one who's reading this needs any more info, please holler. if you have overcome this in another method that was more succesful, please update :)