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Since I started creating MSI installers for Windows XP’s Windows Installer, there are a few bad habits that I’ve apparently let slip into my work, and Vista is quickly showing me when and how. The first one I found is that Vista’s Installer doesn’t let you mess around at will, as long as you’re installing from an account with administrative privileges, as XP basically does. Instead, you have to carefully consider what you’ll be doing with your install logic, then run any Custom Actions in a such a way as to pass Windows Installer’s new, far more robust, checks.

Stefan Krueger of installsite.org has written up a nice list of 7 reasons (PDF) why your installer might fail in Vista, even though it cooks right along in XP. I immediately noticed I was guilty of #2, and thanks to Stefan and the recent acquisition of InstallShield 2008, I was able to quickly modify my previously unusable installer (based on Alan’s successful Ghost AI version) for McAfee ePO and have it run on Vista for the first time.

It’s interesting also to note that #6 on the list explains that the built-in Administrator account in Vista is actually different from the other ‘administrator’ accounts created in the OS. That’s why right-clicking an executable and choosing ‘Run as Administrator’ can often have different results in Vista than simply running it through, say, your own administrative account.

Of course, it’s not always a good idea to go ahead and run your CA in the system context. I found out why pretty quickly when all of our systems started reporting in with the username ‘SYSTEM’ in ePO, denying us a sometimes useful piece of information that we used to have in XP, namely the last logged-in user on a particular system. But, while we’re still in the wild west era of Windows Vista, anything that makes an installer work is welcome news.

windows, vista, XP, MSI, installshield, epo, mcafee, installer

Remember what it was like to boot into Windows 1.0.1, with its simple two-color blue-and-white scheme (the Blue Screen of Life, perhaps?)? I don’t, since I was two. Thankfully, TechRepublic has this tribute to Windows splash screens throughout the ages so you can nostalgize about waiting for all sorts of different computers to boot.

microsoft windows, splash screen, history of windows, windows 1.0.1, windows, OS, operating system

A situation came up at work recently where one of our users wanted to make sure that each and every person who logged onto a particular machine would have the same printer set up as their default. Various previous attempts to do this had failed, since there doesn’t seem to be a command-line switch for globally changing the default printer in Windows XP. I floated the problem to a co-worker, who suggested putting a simple batch file in place to run on every user’s Logon. This ended up working beautifully, as follows:

1. Create a batch file by going to My Computer, choose the root file path of the hard drive (usually C:), right-click on some empty space and select ‘New Text Document.’
2. Next, open your new text document and type in one of the following lines:
   • If you have a networked printer, type rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n\\%printername%
   • If you have a local printer, type rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n”%localprintername%”
   • Choose ‘Save As’ in Notepad and change the type of file from Text (.txt) to ‘All Files.’ Name it something like ‘printer.bat’ (the ‘printer part is not important, the .bat part is) and save it to the C: drive.
   • Go to ‘Start,’ choose ‘Run,’ and type ‘gpedit.msc’ to launch the Management Console.
   • Under ‘User Configuration,’ ‘Windows Settings,’ you will find ‘Scripts (Logon / Logoff).’ Double-click on ‘Logon’ in the main window (to the right) and choose ‘Add’ to add a new script.
   • Browse for your batch file (should be on C:). You don’t need any additional parameters. At this point, every user that logs in will have their default printer reset to the one you want.

   default printer, printer, windows xp, windows, printers, windows printer, default, command-line printer, printer control, global printer control, global default printer, management console, notepad, logon script, logon, user

   Tags: command-line printer, default, default printer, global default printer, global printer control, logon, logon script, management console, notepad, printer, printer control, printers, user, Windows, windows printer, windows xp
   

You know what? I’ve had enough of the self-righteous bullshit I constantly hear from people who, for one reason or another, use obscure operating systems and feel it necessary, solely for that reason, to rag on Windows at every opportunity. Take for example, the plethora of smug, overbearing Mac users that seems to crawl out of the woodwork to make fun of virus protection. Case in point is a poll on Techdirt.com, which asks users to list the number of ‘anti-’ programs running on their desktop. Clearly, this was intended for the 95% of users out there running Windows, but that didn’t stop the beret-wearing crowd from chiming in brilliantly:

Why is it that if somebody doesn’t have ANY anti-something, that they are “living dangerously”?

Perhaps it should be renamed to “I don’t use an OS/Software the forces me to use this junk”

Here’s the thing: I love Macs. I think Linux is neat. But the fact of the matter is that most of the world is running Windows, so most of the pond-scum writing viruses and spyware are going to target it, because they’re skeevy assholes, not complete idiots. No one really cares if their popup displays on Safari 1.0, if their malware-anti-spyware product will install on FreeBSD, or if they can hijack your browser to dial aged Portuguese women in South Jersey for per-minute tele-sexual services. There’s millions of other people out there running Windows who are ready to eat that shit up. But you know what? If your operating system was popular, all the other kids would hate it too, and try to hurt it both phyisically and psychologically. Plus, here’s the thing that other OS users are always afraid to admit. Windows users can afford to run anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-bellum, and anti-quated software all at the same time on their machines, and still be able to do exactly what they want with their computers. And you know why? ‘Cuz all that porno’s optimized to run on fuckin’ IE, bitch. So have a nice day staring at the command line, nerd.

Someone at work pointed me to a new and free tool available for people looking to automate Windows tasks. Basically, AutoIt is supposed to grab info about currently open windows, as well as execute commands, in order to turn mind-numbing tasks like installing Adobe Acrobat CS2 on 80 machines from a CD, um, a little more mind-numbing, I guess. I’ll probably post more soon once I’ve gotten a chance to try it out, but why not try it out yourself–it’s free.