Is it possible to instantly deploy a certain piece of software by creating a GPO in Active Directory? I realize it's possible to do this but only after rebooting the computer, and that is something we don't always want to do, especially since some of the software I want to deploy on servers.
What are the options?
One thing to note is that most of our users do NOT have admin rights as I am talking not only about servers but also about workstations in the classrooms.
No. Iti s not - first, the clients have to ask for the group policy, and they update only every x hours.
For non - admins - no real solution exists. Immediate software distribution is mostly an administrative oversight (except in special cases).
You certainly can use PSEXEC to install something that doesn't require a reboot, remotely, under a different user account than the logged in user, with elevated privileges.
Note: GPO assignment is much cleaner, because it doesn't leave you with the separate administrative task of tracking which machines have the software and which need it.
Here's an article that pretty much explains how this could work. Of course 'best practice' is always going to be rebooting the machine via a combination of /force.
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/How-Force-Remote-Group-Policy-Processing.html