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stead1984
Asked: 2011-06-16 00:59:06 +0800 CST

Remote installing programs by scripts or batch files

  • 772

Firstly, I can't use Group Policy as our team doesn't manage that. The company is a massive FTSE company with a team for every aspect of IT you can think of.

Our team needs a way of installing programs remotely either by batch files or scripts utlising Windows Installer and .msi files.

I've so far managed to install Java using psexec (see below)

psexec \\pcname -u *username* -p *password* -i 
msiexec.exe /a "msilocation\install.msi"

This works without any problems. However I want something a little more automatic than that.

However what I would like to do is to be able to run a script or batch file from my machine that will install the msi on all remote workstations listed. I'm pretty certain you can list workstations in batch file but I maybe wrong.

I'm not to fussed if I have to do the fix in a script or batch file to be honest. I just can't use Group Policy etc.

scripting batch-file windows-installer msi pstools

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Create a text file named COMPUTERS.TXT and put all the computer names in it, one per line.

    Then, create a .CMD file with the following code:

    EDIT

    I added %%i\ in front of *username to specify the remote machine admin user.

    EDIT 2

    I fixed a typo in the code...changed psexec \\%%1 to psexec \\%%i.

    @ECHO OFF

FOR /F "tokens=1" %%i IN (COMPUTERS.TXT) DO (
  psexec \\%%i -u %%i\*username* -p *password* -i msiexec.exe /a "msilocation\install.msi"
)
    • 6

  2. I created a VB app that I think fits what you're looking for. The application is called Script Zombie. Basically it passes a host name to script to be executed. You can control how many tasks will be spawned concurrently, so you could have your script running against as many as 25 systems at once.

    Here's where you can grab the free application: Script Zombie v0.85

    • 2

  3. if you have admin on the remote devices doesn't psexec have an command line option that uses a text file for input!

    • 1

  4. As you are able to use startup scripts perhaps you can script this so that each machine initiates it from that end, rather than trying to push it out from remote. If necessary the script could start by checking a file on a shared resource which lists the machines that should be involved and exit if it's name is not on the list.

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