How to: Make a simple snapin-Start to finish

[Darrell Lanson]

With the way I have mine setup it installs in the background and doesn’t disturb the user while the snapin deploys the only thing the user might notice is the adobe reader shortcut showing up on there desktop. So once you have edited the msi file save it to a new name run sfx maker on it with the /qn silent swutches than create executable and upload that to the snaping folder. add snaping to whatever computer you want than deploy either all snapins or a single snapin under the advanced tasks.

[andyroo54]

[quote=“Darrell Lanson, post: 9630, member: 1392”]With the way I have mine setup it installs in the background and doesn’t disturb the user while the snapin deploys the only thing the user might notice is the adobe reader shortcut showing up on there desktop. So once you have edited the msi file save it to a new name run sfx maker on it with the /qn silent swutches than create executable and upload that to the snaping folder. add snaping to whatever computer you want than deploy either all snapins or a single snapin under the advanced tasks.[/quote]
Ours used to be done like this, but I found that fog actually hides it anyway if you deploy it from Fog.

But I prefer to see it run if I’m running the SFX “manually”.

[Selfcommit]

I’m looking for some better understanding on this:

Can the snap-in tool run any executable? (Meaning could I simply write my executable in AutoIT, and then compile to exe?)

Also what user does the file run as? Currently logged on user? System account?
If I disable the UAC controls, will that stay disabled when the system joins a domain?
How many times does the Snapin attempt to run?

[andyroo54]

[quote=“Selfcommit, post: 10436, member: 801”]I’m looking for some better understanding on this:

Can the snap-in tool run any executable? (Meaning could I simply write my executable in AutoIT, and then compile to exe?)

Also what user does the file run as? Currently logged on user? System account?
If I disable the UAC controls, will that stay disabled when the system joins a domain?
How many times does the Snapin attempt to run?[/quote]

Yes it can run anything. Just remember, the sfx is just a 7zip compressed archive.

The 7zip file is made into an exe by the sfx program. All the exe does is extract the zip archive to a temporary location, then runs whatever command you specify.

In my example, the sfx will extract the installer and the .cmd script to a temp location, then it runs the .cmd file, which then launches the installer silently. In theory, you could just tell the sfx maker to run the adobe installer, but it would not complete without input from the user which is why we use a cmd script to automate it.

In your case, you could tell sfx maker to execute your executable that you made in AutoIT. I’d suggest trying to make a few SFX first to learn more about it.

[Selfcommit]

So does the fog client look specifically for an sfx, or does it just run whatever executable it’s handed as a snapin?

Also - Does it run as the currently logged on user, or as a system account?

When does it run? At logon?

[andyroo54]

[quote=“Selfcommit, post: 10446, member: 801”]So does the fog client look specifically for an sfx, or does it just run whatever executable it’s handed as a snapin?

Also - Does it run as the currently logged on user, or as a system account?

When does it run? At logon?[/quote]

I imagine it will run any exe. I haven’t tried, but I don’t know how it would distinguish one .exe from the other, so again it should work. You will just have to try it.

If deployed from fog it will run as the administrator account you setup for fog. If you run it manually on the PC it will run with whatever privileges you have, ie it will not work if standard user, need to run as administrator.

[ssx4life]

It’s also helpful to point out that when you make a switchless .exe like this it can also be used for group policy or other deployment methods

I’ve recently been using sfx maker - [url]http://www.isoft-online.com/down/SFXMaker_1.3.1_Beta.zip[/url] to package and create installers for fog. Works great on larger installations of programs like Microsoft Office and Adobe CS products

Thanks again Andyroo for the guide.

[Kamz87]

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[daniele borini]

This post is deleted!

[Bigredcherokee]

Really hate to dig up an old topic but my problem is when using a exe and calling a “.bat” once its decompressed. The snapin deploys the SFX.exe just fine to the computer its post extraction that im having a problem with. I want this to be silent as possible and don’t want a user intervention. I tried a couple of things but UAC causes issues and some of the workstations are kiosk and or limited users.

I rather use FOG to push the apps than use GPO b/c it will not slow down the boot or shutdown process.

[code]
@echo off

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM --> Check for permissions

nul 2>&1 “%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe” “%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system”

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if ‘%errorlevel%’ NEQ ‘0’ (
echo Requesting administrative privileges…
goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
echo Set UAC = CreateObject^(“Shell.Application”^) > “%temp%\getadmin.vbs”
set params = %*:“=”"
echo UAC.ShellExecute “cmd.exe”, “/c %~s0 %params%”, “”, “runas”, 1 >> “%temp%\getadmin.vbs”

"%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
exit /B

:gotAdmin
pushd “%CD%”
CD /D “%~dp0”
:--------------------------------------

[/code]

[Bigredcherokee]

@Bigredcherokee

Okay think I found my own fix.

The package .exe file must contain an application manifest, i.e. an XML file with special instructions. All UAC compliant applications should have a requested execution level added to the application manifest. Requested execution levels allow the system to know the specific privileges required for a package.

Sorry to bring up an old post.