Installation on Anything About IT

Automated Download and Installation for the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:13:55 +0000

Since I am going install the ADK on several clients and servers, I decided to automate that process based on the information found in the MSDN article Installing the Windows ADK

Because downloading all the ADK sources from the Microsoft web can take a while, the first task is to only download them and save the locally.

Create a folder on your local drive, let’s say C:\DATA\ADKSETUP
Then download the ADKSETUP.EXE from the Microsoft download page here and store it into C:\DATA\ADKSETUP (Note that this link will change once the RTM version is released).
Create a batch file called ADK_Download.cmd that has the following content:

@ ECHO OFF
cd %~dp0 adksetup.exe /quiet /installpath %~dp0 /layout %~dp0
Pause

How to Reset Windows 8 without external media

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:46:21 +0000

Yesterday I’ve talked about the Windows 8 Refresh Your PC feature, today I’d like to show how you can reset Windows 8 without using external media. When performing a Reset on a Windows 8 client, you are going to run a complete fresh installation of Windows 8 without preserving any user data or settings. You would use this option before you give back your system to anyone else and want to make sure that there is no personal data or settings left on the system.

Automated Microsoft Security Essentials Installation

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:30:08 +0000

For all those that frequently setup test machines and get tired of manually installing the Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0, here’s a straight forward batch file (even a regular user could use) that does the following:

Downloads the Microsoft Security Essential 2.0 (x86) installation source file
Installs Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0
Downloads and updates the virus definition signature file

[sourcecode language=“plain”] @ECHO OFF Echo Downloading Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 (x86) start /wait bitsadmin /TRANSFER MSE20 http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/3/8/A38FFBF2-1122-48B4-AF60-E44F6DC28BD8/en-us/x86/mseinstall.exe %TEMP%\mseinstall.exe

Getting access to Windows 7 Evaluation installation sources

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:13:08 +0000

Most IT pro’s probably don’t have a problem in getting access to the Windows 7 operating system installation sources because they can access them through their corporate volume license agreement and/or MSDN or TechNet subscription. But unfortunately there are still some out there who do not have such easy access to these sources.

For the use of Windows 7 on a primary device (the one that one uses on a daily basis) an official version of Windows 7 that comes either from the Corporate Volume media source or a separately acquired copy or pre-installed with a new computer must be used.

Leftover files after .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 installation

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:43:51 +0000

Some of you might have noticed that after installing the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1, there can be a leftover folder in the root of the system as shown in the picture below.

We identified this issue right after .NET 3.5 SP1 was installed, and found out soon that we were not the only ones having this issue. Microsoft describes this behavior in KB951847 and confirms the folder can be deleted.

Reduce software installation time

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:39:40 +0000

Windows7 comes with Windows Installer 5.0 that has a new installation property called MSIFASTINSTALL. Using the MSIFASTINSTALL property can help reduce time required to install a windows installer package.

The trick behind MSIFASTINSTALL is quite simple, it just skips things that consume time like creating a system restore point or calculating the space requirements (File Costing). So if you do not need system restore points and know that your clients have enough disk space anyway, you could consider using the MSIFASTINSTALL property to speed up application installations.