KACE Product Support

dyehardfan,

Why not set your DEP task as the last task, then after the reboot the computer will be ready to be used. The post installation tasks were not designed to have reboots in between tasks, so if it has to be done this way, then you have to change your scripts to be runonce or run some other way.

Wait...what? This functionality was available in a Windows XP Scripted Install? Why was the functionality not built into Win 7 Scripted? There are various reasons one would need a reboot while installing applications. Is this a difference in the OS or is the Win7 scripted not writing a runonce to pick back up on the post install tasks?



ORIGINAL: cserrins

dyehardfan,

Why not set your DEP task as the last task, then after the reboot the computer will be ready to be used. The post installation tasks were not designed to have reboots in between tasks, so if it has to be done this way, then you have to change your scripts to be runonce or run some other way.

It isn't that the ability was there in XP, XP does scripted installs differently, items ran as RunOnceEx, which means that if a reboot occurred in the middle, it would pick it back up. Windows 7 does it differently, so in other words, the product hasn't changed, Windows did. Even though DEP needs a reboot, does it need it right then? or can you let the other tasks complete, then reboot. This is the process used in lots of applications, adding the /norestart switch so that other items can be installed at the same time.

Corey

Yes, I should have worded my earlier question better in regards to the KBox having the ability or the installation itself having the ability. However, RunOnceEx functionality is available in Windows 7, to the best of my knowledge, it just has to be imported or written to the Reg. I might be wrong on that one.

DEP is not really going to be the one that messes me up, it's going to be some of the computers we use that use a shared audio/video card and have to have a reboot in between driver installation. I use the /norestart switch on every application installation that I can, but occasionally you run into things that just require a reboot before you can continue.

Win7 has been a fun learning process....

Did you ever figure out a way to do this? I have a application that needs UAC disabled before it will install correct. So I wanted to run the regedit to disable UAC, reboot, install apps, then re-enable UAC, reboot.

From the sounds of this post that is not possible..

I am getting around the UAC by creating and Administrator account during OS installation and using the following post install task to suppress the prompting of UAC consent, which works fine for Admin accounts:

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

I still think that the KACE Development team should find a way to create the reg key entries to pick back up post install tasks after a reboot.

Im pretty sure they are working on it, but even if they injected the keys back in, the implementation of RunonceEx has changed in Vista and Win7 so im sure there is some development associated.

It is weird because I think their is part of reboot process working ..however not really sure because it seems to work with reboot 'sometimes'. As far as the UAC regedit, do you have to reboot to have that UAC prompt suppressed or is the change immediate?

Change is immediate, no reboot.

Yeah, I have done some reading on the changes with RunOnce between XP and 7 and do realize things are different. However they can still be used. I have a final post-install task that writes it's on RunOnce to kick off programs after reboot and don't see why a dynamically updating system couldn't be coded to pick up after the last completed install task after reboot. Hopefully you're correct and it is something that is being worked on.

I have found a way to run Windows updates as a post install task but needs a restart and then re-run for all updates to be downloaded and installed so how would i get round this?

Thanks

I have no clue if you have a K1- but here's one idea; Create a breadcrumb to label a machine as "newly imaged" or something; then force it to check in to the K1. Once the K1 has it in a smart label you could do anything you like with a patch job set to run really aggressively (only agains the new machines label of course) or use scripting to accomplish something against WSUS or something. You could draw a line in the sand where a script would eventually remove that breadcrumb after a given criteria was met; so the machine would fall out of the "newly imaged" label and resume normal operations. Same concept can be used to deliver software, scripts, whatever you want from the K1. Hope that helps?

K1000 KKE's: https://support.software.dell.com/k1000-systems-management-appliance/kb?k=KKE

Im ok at writing scripts but how would i create one for checking that patching has finished and then get the script to delete the breadcrumb?

Also how would i get it run the force the detect and deploy of the patches?

Thanks

So the breadcrumb isn't doing the force, or the "finished" portion of this, it's simply a placeholder to get things started.

The patch schedule would be potentailly very agressive against machines in the smart label where the breadcrumb is present. "Patching is finished" is a moving target; and a true line-in-the-sand.
I take the approach of setting a script to remove the breadcrumb when a recent patch has applied; potentially a service pack or KB# that is recent enough that I'd release the machine if it were patched to at least that point.
Once the breadcrumb is gone the machine falls out of the smart label and is no longer part of the aggressive patch schedule.