New Boundary Support Forum / Prism Deploy & Prism Pack / Configuration Group Rulesets

Detecting display resolution

mad — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:21:14 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to deploy desktop wallpaper to a group of computers, however, being the perfectionist I am, I want to deploy an image of the correct size depending on the resolution of the client receiving the package.

According to a previous post, detecting screen resolutin was not possible to do with configuration groups.

http://www.nbtnet.newboundary.com/forum/Topic1096-7-1.aspx?Highlight=resolution

My question therefore, is this possible todo with any of the NewBoundary products or not? And if so, how?

Brgds,

Magnus

Serial Number Search

pudding08 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:25:19 GMT

Is there any way to use Prism to find a computer name by providing the Serial number?

For example you can make a WMI Query with a VBScript to find the Serial number of a computer if you have the computer name -- using objWMIservice.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_BIOS",,48)

Can Prism do the other way around with a configuration group?

Thanks,
Lou

Auto login based on username.

SJO — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:50:30 GMT

Hi New Boundary, bear with me here a long description;

I am a Sysadmin for a training facility where we often re-image our machines using Microsoft BDD2007 and WDS. During the process the Prism Client is rolled out onto the workstations and following a re-boot it shows up in the console fine. We have two groups of users, educators and students. To share training material, the educators have R/W to certain network drives where the students only have read access. The students and the educators each have their own user, "student" and "educator".
Now the entire process of naming the workstation, choosing the right image for the right computer, joining the domain and pushing out the right "Base" software has been fully automated using BDD.

Except for one little annoying detail; The process ends at a windows login prompt. To solve that I've tried various Auto-logon registry scripts and when tested they work fine, but the BDD process clears all auto-logon information when finishing up, so my changes are wiped clean and I end up at a blank logon prompt again. I want it to end logged in and ready for use.

The naming conventions for the computers are basically just the room and computer number with an "E" added to educator workstations.
To try and solve this, I set up prism to have two configuration groups, student and educator. When a student is logged in, prism detects username and executes a registry import to have that user forever autologon. It works to a degree. But my real problem is that the process is not auto logging on the first time, it needs a username so this won't solve my problem. EXCEPT if I instead of detecting username, I detect computername, and have it log on according to student or educator computernames and then I set the script to run unattended right?

YES, except... it works SOMETIMES. And THAT'S what's bothering me.
Why does it seem to work randomly on and off? It's works like 40 percent of the time.

It's as if the prism server just quits out of the blue, the configuration groups being populated fine but the commands are not executed, not just the unattended command but also the username detection command is sometimes ignored.

Please tell me I have overcomplicated things that there's a much easier or more reliable way to to do it? All I want is to have the student users logged on to the student pcs and the educators logged on the educator pcs automatically. Everything else is automated from one mouse click in the PXE menu.

Prism Deploy 8 running on Windows 2003 R2 fully updated. The clients are all windows XP fully updated as well. Had the exact same thing on version 7. Manual push of software never fails.

Kind regards,
SJO

Excluding certain PC Names

pudding08 — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:56:37 GMT

I have a query that will find certain software installed, I would like to exclude certain computers that start with certain letters.

For example: I want to exlude all computer names that start with the first three letters "tug" I tried using ComputerName <> "tug%" or "%tug% and even "tug*" Is there anyway to do this?

Thanks,
Lou

Report on Admin rights

Eric Hofland — Wed, 09 May 2007 05:00:20 GMT

Is it possible to report which groups/users are members of the Administrators group on the clients ?

Eric

Show %USERNAME% s current logged on users.

Mike — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:11:00 GMT

Ruleset for displaying current user logon.

I had this fantastic ruleset once that showed the current username's in it and under the username the comutername's where shown. I downloaded this ruleset from the forum ones but it isn't available anymore.

Does anyone have this ruleset for me?

Yes, i deleted it. damn.

Mike

User-defined Group

stefansju — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:11:12 GMT

I want to set up a User-defined Group that organize computers that have a specific service stopped. Is it possible? I guess that I have to choose "custom" under Value Type?

Any idea?

/Stefan

autoinstall configuration groups

miahmichno — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:37:52 GMT

Is there a way to create a Configuration Group, so that if PC's are found with that criteria, a package can be run? Any time the PC shows up in the group the package can be run automatically, even if it had been run in the past.

I have a situation where we have noticed a specific file is missing on our PC's. I have created a package to put the file back, and have created a ruleset to find out if it is missing. I want a way to tie these to things together.

Thanx,

Adobe programs

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:39:00 GMT

Illustrator and Photoshop tend to be applications that "migrate" to users who are not actually licensed to use them. We use configuration groups to find out if they're installed. If the computer is licensed to have it, fine, otherwise we set up a task to remove it.

Here's the rulset syntax for Illustrator:
EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Illustrator.exe"

Here's the ruleset syntax for Photoshop:
(EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Photoshop.exe") OR (EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Photoshp.exe")

Here's the ruleset syntax for Adobe 6.0 Professional:
EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AC76BA86-1033-0000-7760-000000000001}"

and for Adobe 5.0 (full program, not just the free Reader):
EXISTS <File> "c:\program files\adobe\acrobat 5.0\acrobat\acrobat.exe"

Timezone Config Group

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:01:05 GMT

Is there a published setup of how to verify if timezone patches have worked on XP,2000 and 98. I have read your timezone patch/fix solution and applied xp patches, 2000 and win98 fix's, I would like to verify if every computer is completed using a configuration group.

How to check a file size

unclelumpy — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:42:19 GMT

Is it possible to create a group based on the size of a file - i know where the file exists but it doesn't have a version number so the only way to distinguish the various versions is by its size.

Identify PCs needing latest app version

Andy Rampton — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:31:05 GMT

I want to create a config rule like
(EXISTS <File> "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Prism Deploy\Unapply\NBS Building 5.5. < 7 .PWR")
but don't know how to search for less than 7 in the file name

I thought of using grepmatches[1-6] but I am uncertain how to us it in the middle of a file name eg
"...Unapply\NBS Building 5.5. & grepmatches[1-6] & .PWR")

Detect Wireless Card

chioiro — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:10:31 GMT

Is there a way to search for a specific wireless card within your clients?

Thanks

Detect File System

Eric Hofland — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:24:00 GMT

Is it possible to determine what File system is on a Harddisk (Fat32 or NTFS) in a configuration group ??

Desktop Resolution

DavidF — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 23:08:00 GMT

I want to make a configuration group that shows the desktop resolution of each computer. Is there a easy way to do this?

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David Feldt
IT-Technician
National Maritime Museums of Sweden

MSN version

pangpang — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:12:00 GMT

How I can use Prism to detect what is the latest version of Prism that the clients have installed?

Detect non-fixed paging files

R. Robert Bell — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 10:59:00 GMT

I want to see what computers on my network are not setup with fixed paging (swap) files. Most of my computers have the same size fixed pagefile.sys.

The registry stores info on the page file at the following key:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\...

Session Manager\Memory Management\PagingFiles

Exluding certain computers from config group

Glenn — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 13:03:00 GMT

I have a configuration group created but have been asked to exclude certain computer names. Those computer names all start with the same naming convention. For example ABC1, ABC2, ABC3...etc.

Is there a way I can remove those computers without further distrubing my already created config group?

Searching for a folder

Steven Bergman — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 15:06:00 GMT

To search for a specific folder on users' desktops, use the following rule:

EXISTS <Folder> "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Folder Name"

Now, any computer that has a folder called "Folder Name" on the desktop of the logged in user will join this group.

Determining local disk file system

Glenn — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:23:00 GMT

Is there a way to create a ruleset to identify which workstations are running either FAT32 or NTFS on their boot partitions?

OS Revision ruleset

Glenn — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 10:20:00 GMT

What is the proper syntax for creating a ruleset that includes 2 OS revisions but excludes another. For example, I want to create a ruleset that looks for a certain registry key for clients running Windows XP Initial Release and Windows XP SP1, but to include clients running Windows XP SP2.

Should the OS Revision value type come first, or should it come after the registry key value?

secgroup.dll and user rights

AdamOfMo — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 08:44:00 GMT

I'm using Prism Deploy 6 (server and clients) and the secgroup.dll plugin (v 1.0.1.2) is registered on the workstations which all run Windows XP SP1.

Custom groups like: <Custom> "Security Groups" "DOMAIN\Acrobat" = "True" work like a charm.

There is only one snag. The logged on user must have full rights to write in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lanovation\Prism Deploy\Channels\<channel GUID>. When I give users full control on this key, it works for users that are not local admins (none of our users are local admins ).

The danger is that users can delete this key and thus not be subscribed to a channel which creates more work for our support staff.

Is there a patch or a new version of secgroups.dll which solves this problem?

Get a registery key?

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 13:18:00 GMT

Is there a way to find and build a configuration group based on a registry key value? Not just a value, but an actual key (folder). For example, what version of Adobe Reader is installed "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\< >. Where the key could be 5.0, 6.0 or other.

timestamp / last reboot?

calarch — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 19:11:00 GMT

so, I'm trying to create a rule that will show me if a computer hasn't rebooted in the past x days. There are some files that have the timestamp of the last reboot, so is there a way to create a rule based on the age of a file?

Custom configuration group

nkange — Fri, 02 Apr 2004 09:30:00 GMT

Hi,

Earlier there was a custom configuration group dll named secgroup.dll available which was very nice, but after the upgrade to prism 5.11 it stopped working, and it has been removed from this site. Does anyone know if there will be a new version available or if theres some kind of development kit or description of how it works so that i can build these customs myself??

//Niklas

recent critical updates

calarch — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:35:00 GMT

Here's the rule I used to see if an XP machine needs the MSASN hotfix from last month:

(<File Version> "c:\windows\system32\msasn1.dll" < 5.1.2600.1274) AND (OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.SP1)

Comments? Is anyone else doing this? There is also the option of looking for the registry key.

Here's the one I'm using for the IE6 cumulative patch on machines with XP SP1 and IE6 SP1. It tells me if the patch HAS BEEN installed. I can assign the command to install the patch to the "all others" group:

( <Registry Value> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\\Version" = "6.0.2800.1106") AND ( <Registry Value> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{eddbec60-89cb-44ef-8291-0850fd28ff6a}\\IsInstalled" = "1")

I would appreciate any comments on these rules (accuracy, easier way to do it, etc.). Thanks!

-Eric

Configuration Group for Client version

Gunnar — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:40:00 GMT

I have upgraded the PD server to 5.0 and all new PCs to PD client 5.0 and now I´m trying to find out which computers that still have PD client 4.02, because I can not send packages to them. I have tried with "c:\Program Files\Prism Deploy\Client\ptclient.exe" = 4.02 and
"c:\Program Files\Prism Deploy\Client\ptclient.exe" = "4.*" but none of them works.
Anyone who knows how to do????

config group for IE6 sp1

calarch — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:32:00 GMT

Hi, I am trying to create a configuration group of computers with Windows XP SP1 and Internet Explorer 6 SP1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer has a Version with string value 6.0.2800.1106 on my machine.

So I tried this rule: <Registry Value> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Version" = "6.0.2800.1106"

Can anyone see the problem with this rule? It's not populating, but my "all others" group sure is. I get the concept but I must be messing up the syntax.

Populate Based on Time

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:49:00 GMT

Build a Rule based on Prism's variable %PT_HOUR% which resolves to the current hour in military time (00-23). Use this Group to assign Tasks that should only be distributed at certain times such as non-business hours. For example, to create a Configuration Group that populates when the computer time is between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., create the following Rule

("%PT_HOUR%" >= "01") AND ("%PT_HOUR%" < "06")

How to seach for a file type

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:45:00 GMT

I want to make a config group which holds all computers that have particular file types. For example all computers with MP3's or MPEG's. I know how to check for a file existing in a hard coded path but how do you "search " the entire hard drive for *.mp3 or *.mpg and group accordingly? What's the variable/wildcard for "entire hard drive"?

Thanks....

2003 Office Professional Config Rule

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:43:00 GMT

I have used the New Boundary Rulesets for previous versions of Office and they have worked flawlessly. I have created a ruleset that looks for the uninstall registry key for Office 2003 Pro just Like New Boundary did for Previous versions and it works perfect. Just create group, user defined , go to editor and paste in

EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}"

MDAC Security Update

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:41:00 GMT

Does anyone have any suggestions on creating a rule to seek out the WinXP machines with the recent security security update for MDAC "Unchecked Buffer in MDAC Function Could Enable System Compromise (823718)" aka "Security Update for Microsoft Data Access Components (326573) - (Posted Date: August 19, 2003)" for patching?

Config Group Rules for WinXP SP1 Hot Fixes

Guest — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 16:40:00 GMT

First thing I did was create a rule under the Main Config Group based on OSRevision to sort out all my WinXP Systems.

Rule Name: WinXP - Initial Release
Rule Text: OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.Initial

Rule Name: 2003-01-01 WinXP SP1 - Installed
Rule Text: OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.SP1
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Under the "2003-01-01 WinXP SP1 - Installed" rule created the following Sub Groups Based on rule.

Rule Name: 2003-02-18 Q322011 - Not Installed
Rule Text: (OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.SP1) AND (NOT EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HotFix\Q322011")

Rule Name: 2003-02-18 Q329048 - Not Installed
Rule Text: (OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.SP1) AND (NOT EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HotFix\Q329048")

Rule Name: 2003-02-18 Q329390 - Not Installed
Rule Text: (OSRevision = OS.Revision.WinXP.SP1) AND (NOT EXISTS <Registry Key> "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HotFix\Q329390")

and so on......

Check the HotFix info at Microsoft website to make sure it applies to your needs. Some of these rules could use file version qualifications to help identify for sure if you require the fix or not.