Deploying Java and Adobe Reader via Group Policy

January 23, 2013 Leave a comment

Java:

Firstly download the latest Java Windows offline installer here.

Run the installer, and wait for the Welcome screen to appear. Next, navigate to the following directory, where USER_NAME is the name of the logged on user, and jre_VERSION is the name of the version of Java that you have just extracted:

C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\jre_VERSION

In this folder you will find an msi file and a data.cab file. Copy the jre_VERSION folder to you network deployment point, and then add the msi file path to a new package in the software installation section of the Group Policy Object (GPO) that you wish to deploy Java to.

 

Adobe Reader:

Simple Method:

Download the most recent MSI file from ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win and deploy that to a new package in the software installation section of the GPO that you wish to deploy to e.g. AdbeRdr11000_en_US.msi. Note that Adobe only issue MSI files for the major releases e.g. 11.0.00.

Complex Method

This method includes how to patch the MSI file of the major release outlined in the simple method to include all the latest security patches. Firstly download the MSI file for the major release which you want to patch and place it in a folder on your computer e.g. C:\ADOBEREADER

Next download the .exe file for the update version which you want to patch to e.g. 11.0.01 from ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win and extract the contents using the following command, where _VERSION is the version number of the file you downloaded:

AdbeRdr_VERSION_en_US.exe -nos_ne

e.g. AdbeRdr1101_en_US.exe -nos_ne

This will extract the contents of the .exe file to a subfolder in the C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Setup folder. Copy the .MSP file contained in this folder to the C:\ADOBEREADER folder you created earlier. From the command prompt navigate to the C:\ADOBEREADER folder and run the following command where MSI_VERSION is the version of the MSI file that you are updating and PATCH_VERSION is the version of the patch that you are applying :

msiexec /a AdbeRdr_MSI_VERSION_en_US.msi /p AdbeRdr_PATCH_VERSION.msp

e.g. msiexec /a AdbeRdr11000_en_US.msi /p AdbeUpd11001.msp

Click through the steps of the installer, and then click finish. Your .msi file has now been patched

Finally, copy your new patched msi file to your network deployment point and create a new package in the software installation section of the GPO which you wish to deploy Adobe Reader to.

References:

How do I deploy Java using Active Directory across a network?

How to extract an MSI file from the EXE for Adobe Reader

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Filed under Deployment, Windows Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Back Up All Group Policy Objects using Backup-GPO and the Group Policy Management Console

February 14, 2012 Leave a comment

Here are a couple of quick methods to backup all of your group policy objects in one hit. The first uses the Powershell cmdlet Backup-GPO. On a Windows Server 2008 domain controller fire up Powershell, and issue the following command, where C:\PATH_TO_BACKUP is the path where you want to save the backup:

Backup-GPO -All -Path C:\PATH_TO_BACKUP

The second method uses the Group Policy Management Console. Fire up gpmc.msc, and then expand your domain. Right click on ‘Group Policy Objects’ and then choose ‘Back Up All’ as shown below:

Backing up all GPOs using the Group Policy Management Console

Browse for a location to back up to, and give a description if you need one, then click Back Up and you’re done:

Choose a location and description for the GPO backup

 

References:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461052.aspx

Filed under Windows Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Restrict or filter GAL access for OWA users using MSExchQueryBaseDN in Exchange 2007

January 9, 2012 Leave a comment

When hosting Exchange 2007 mailboxes for use purely with Outlook Web Access (OWA) you may wish to limit access to the Global Address List (GAL), so that logged in users can only see a subset of the contacts in the GAL. This would be particularly relevant in hosting environments where mailboxes may be hosted for multiple companies in the same active directory, and you might want users to only see contact information from users for their company, rather than all companies.

A while ago we had a situation where this was a requirement. In our case there were several groups of users who would only be accessing email through OWA, and only needed contact information for a subset of staff. We were able to use custom address lists and the MSExchQueryBaseDN user attribute to solve this problem.

If you run adsiedit.msc and look at the properties of a user object you can scroll down the list of attributes to find MSExchQueryBaseDN.

The MSExchQueryBaseDn attribute in adsiedit

In order to limit which contacts a particular user or group of users can access, firstly you need to set up a new Address List either using the Exchange Management Console, or Exchange Management Shell. The address list should contain the contacts that you want the user or group of users to be able to view. Please note that you could point the MSExchQueryBaseDN attribute to an Organizational Unit, so it would filter contact information for just the users in that OU, but if you need the flexibilty to include contact information for users from various OUs in active directory, it may be easier to use a custom address list.

Once this is done you need to set the MSExchQueryBaseDN attribute of each of the users who you want to restrict to the distinguished name of the address list you created.

e.g.

CN=YOUR_RESTRICTED_ADDRESS_LIST,CN=All Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=YOUR_DOMAIN,DC=local

Where YOUR_RESTRICTED_ADDRESS_LIST is the name of your address list and YOUR_DOMAIN is the name of your domain.

Obviously it would be too time consuming to set this attribute manually for hundreds of users so you could either use ADModify if you want to use a GUI:

Set MSExchQueryBaseDN using ADModify.Net

To reset to the default value using ADModify.Net use a value of ‘null’.

You could also use  to achieve this in Powershell if you would prefer to use the command line. Further details can be found here.

Please note: Using this attribute in Exchange 2010 SP1 may result in undesirable consequences. It has been reported that if this attribute is used you may find that users with the attribute set cannot view the contents of their address list, particularly in Outlook.

Filed under Active Directory, Exchange Tagged with , , , ,

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