What is the difference between assigning and publishing an application via a gpo

The application will install even if the user is a standard user! Publishing can be a great tool for allowing users to engage in self-service application installs or even uninstalls. Have you ever deployed an application only to see that an update was just released?

Personally speaking, Flash and Java seem to be the worst about this! Lucky for us, GPSI has an intuitive but slightly hidden process of upgrading an existing deployment. Depending on your management style, Microsoft has built in two variations. Browse and select your new MSI. From here, you can change the upgrade pattern for your MSI. By default, the upgrade pattern is to uninstall the old package and to install the updated MSI.

This method places both applications in the same GPO, as seen in the screenshot below. We know that the second package is an upgrade because of the green icon arrow pointing up to the 9. The downside to this method is that, once the upgrade is added to this GPO, machines will begin to download the updated policy. If they are rebooted, they will install the application. This single-switch method, where an application is suddenly available for the entire deployment scope, can make testing a little harder and can lead an administrator to deploy an application sooner than intended.

This brings us to the second variation. Separate GPOs enable you to limit the scope of an application or an upgrade. To link two separate GPOs together this way, we have to change one step from Method 1.

From here, you can change the upgrade pattern if needed. There are a couple of downsides to this method. First, you will end up with a lot of GPOs! The second downside is that the GPO names can easily get confusing. This is especially true if you scope your GPOs down to security groups that are named the same as an application. Speaking from personal experience, it is easy to get lazy and to not rename a group or GPO when managing an update.

Which method do I use? Primarily, I will stick with method 1 and use my existing GPO. I love being able to see the upgrade history of an application in one single place. There comes a time in the life of every application where it will need to be put out to pasture. With GPSI, you have the option of preventing future installations of your retired software or to uninstall the application on the next reboot.

For a single application, retirement is easy. Simply right click on the application, select All Tasks and select Remove. Next, you will need to decide whether to remove the application from all machines or to prevent new installations. I think that's an important note especially for newbies. How to deploy software packages via GPO. Peter Action1 This person is a verified professional.

Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional. Last Updated: Feb 20, 1 Minute Read. Reply 3. Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn. Peter Barnett This person is a verified professional. Peter Action1. Main Areas of Contribution:. Track Progress.

Earn Credits. Now, in Figure 3, we need to choose the correct 'side' to implement our instructions. Since we are deploying to users, that means we should create the directive on the USER side. In Figure 3, you can see both sides contain the Software Settings node, so be sure to put your directives in the right place. Figure 3: Software Installation settings are on both User and Computer sides.

To deploy the software, right-click on Software Installation then select New Package as seen in Figure 4. Then select your package and click Advanced as seen in Figure 5. Figure 4: Select New Package to start your deployment. Figure 5: Choose Advanced when deploying software to see your options. When deploying your package you have several options available to you as seen in Figure 6. Here's what they mean:.

If you log off and log back in, only then will you see the applications' icons , as seen in Figure 7. Figure 7: The deployed application's icons. Figure 8: The actual install of the software occurs when users select the application. Group Policy Software Installation is very cool and it allows you to deploy software to your users 'on the cheap. Sign up today to participate, stay informed, earn points and establish a reputation for yourself!

Log in. In fact, when you look at it, you might think: 'Wow, this think is built with magic. Part 1: Prepare and Share The first step in deploying MSI files is in creating the share, and getting that package into the share. Figure 4: Select New Package to start your deployment Figure 5: Choose Advanced when deploying software to see your options.