TABLE OF CONTENTS Remote Installation Services was designed to not only have the ability to deploy an operating system, but also to deploy applications, scripts, files, and commands. Using these abilities can help you perform powerful deployments in distributing files, applications, making registry changes, and executing scripts in the same process as deploying a client or server installation. The result is a client computer deployment where installations will become almost 100% complete and ready to use and where all the characteristics and applications belonging to your organization or environment are available to your users immediately after installation.
Highlights:
Understand the terminology of silent installations
Understand how to deploy files, applications, and software with RIS
Get familiar with cmdlines.txt and GUIRunOnce
See samples of popular scripts and registry keys
Understand how to deploy printers
As you read in Chapter 12, using a distribution point, the $OEM$ folder structure, allows you to distribute files to a computer. We've looked at how we could distribute drivers, but essentially any files can be distributed. This includes registry files, scripts, and application files. Once files are on the local computer, it is possible to do with them whatever you want, including the following:
Run scripts that perform various tasks
Execute registry changes
Install applications
Create directories and work with files
Install printers
The files or folders can be hidden or not; it makes no difference in the installation process. Another possibility is to execute applications, scripts, registry changes, and so on from a network share.
