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Automated Installation and Settings Deployment

Posted by Savance on 08 February 2010 03:13 PM

Silent installations are installations that run without a user interface and are completely automated. Often on a large scale deployment, network login scripts are run for users that automate drive mapping, software and hardware inventory, and automated installations. In addition to scripts, Group Policy and other automated software deployment tools are often used to deploy and manage client applications. For this reason, EIOBoard offers an MSI and an EXE for both the Application Interface and Outlook Interface to support both of these initiatives. This document covers the options to automate the client installations and covers a method to deploy company EIOBoard settings through a registry file and database script.

Guide on how to perform upgrades using Group Policy. Read More...

Option 1 – Use Group Policy deployment with the MSI

How to deploy the EIOBoard MSI with Group Policy: Guide on how to deploy EIOBoard Client using Group Policy

How to deploy the EIOBoard MSI with Group Policy on Windows Server 2012:

http://support.savance.com/index.php?/eioboard/Knowledgebase/Article/View/394/0/installing-eioboard-via-group-policy-2012

This option allows you to download the MSI for the EIOBoard Application or Outlook Interface and deploy the software using Microsoft's Group Policy deployment tools. Read more about them here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/816102/how-to-use-group-policy-to-remotely-install-software-in-windows-server.

Option 2 – Use the Silent Installation option in our installer to do it through scripting

We have MSI installers available which will install silently. You can leverage a login script or batch file to run the installer when your users login to their PCs.

Option 3 – Automatic client upgrade using FTP

This option only applies to upgrades, not new installations. For this option, an FTP site can be configured in the database to use a local FTP server to serve up the latest local version of the installer. The software will automatically recognize that an upgrade is available and locally download the installer and run it interactively. Click here for more details.

Deploying Settings

Some of the settings for the application are stored in the registry and some are stored in the database.

Deploying Settings with the Registry

You can deploy settings to either HKEY_CURRENT_USER if you would like the user to change and save the setting and apply to only that user or you can apply the setting to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to allow all client changes to be disregarded when the application is restarted. You can download additional details and sample registry files here https://www.eioboard.com/downloads/AutomatedSetup.zip

For the EIOBoard Application Interface and Outlook Add-in on a 32-bit or 64-bit system the program saves the Registry settings to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Savance\Eioboard.Net

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Savance\Eioboard Outlook Addin

To deploy the settings to all users for the EIOBoard Application Interface on a 32-bit system the Registry path is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Savance\Eioboard.Net

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Savance\Eioboard Outlook Addin

To deploy the settings to all users for the EIOBoard Application Interface on a 64-bit system the Registry path is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Savance\Eioboard.Net

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Savance\Eioboard Outlook Addin

Be sure to include the following in either HKEY_CURRENT_USER (will apply only to the person logged in) or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (will apply to all users on the PC)

FirstRun, REG_DWORD, 0 (this tells the software not to open the getting started wizard on first start)

WindowsAuthentication, REG_DWORD, 1 (this tells the software to authenticate with their windows username so if you used AD Sync, when you set this to one, the user will not have to put in a username/password)
AzureADAuthentication, REG_DWORD,
If you are using Azure Active Directory, Set Value to 1
(this tells the software to authenticate with their windows username so if you used AD Sync, when you set this to one, the user will not have to put in a username/password)

AutoLogin, REG_DWORD, 1 (this will automatically log them in when the software starts)

WebAddress, REG_SZ, http://{YourURL} (the EIOBoard server URL, EIOBoard-Hosted is http://www.eioboard.com)

You may also want to deploy the setting to automatically start the EIOBoard Application Interface when Windows starts. When you set this option in the settings for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems it saves to the Registry under the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
This path contains a Registry String Value named "EIOBoardApplication" which is set to the path to run the EIOBoard program.

On a 32-bit system the default value is "C:\Program Files\Savance\EIOBoard Application\EIOBoard.exe"

Example Registry entry to deploy the setting to automatically start the EIOBoard Application Interface on Windows startup for all users on a 32-bit system:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"EIOBoardApplication"="\"C:\\Program Files\\Savance\\EIOBoard Application\\EIOBoard.exe\""

On a 64-bit system the default value is"C:\Program Files (x86)\Savance\EIOBoard Application\EIOBoard.exe".

Example Registry entry to deploy the setting to automatically start the EIOBoard Application Interface on Windows startup for all users on a 64-bit system:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"EIOBoardApplication"="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Savance\\EIOBoard Application\\EIOBoard.exe\""

Deploying Settings on a Terminal / Citrix Server

The EIOBoard Application Interface and EIOBoard Outlook Interface are fully supported on a Terminal Server. Since the settings are all stored in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER for a normal installation, you must use a special key to deploy the default settings for a terminal server user to aide in deployment. To apply settings for every Terminal Server or Citrix Server user, either leverage the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key as described above, or go to the following registry key for each interface:

Application Interface
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Savance\EIOBoard.Net

Outlook Interface
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Savance\Eioboard Outlook Addin.

Refer to the Automated Setup file for specific information about which registry keys you can add.

Deploying Settings Stored in the Database

Most of the user settings are stored in the database and can be deployed through the Company User Settings in the Administrator from the EIOBoard Application or Outlook Interface. For more information, click here.

Starting the EIOBoard Application on Startup

Create a String Value (Type REG_SZ) called "EIOBoard Application" in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and make the value "C:\Program Files\Savance\EIOBoard Application\EIOBoard.exe" (or the specific location/name for EIOBoard). You may also use HKEY_CURRENT_USER if you wish to only have it start for specific users instead of everyone that users that machine.

For 64 bit machines, the default is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Savance\EIOBoard Application\EIOBoard.exe"

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