Install MSI with "attached" JSON on startup - Through GPO

Mike Murray 5 Reputation points
2023-03-27T19:32:00.75+00:00

Good day folks!

Been scouring the internet looking for solutions to this and have come up blank thusfar. PDQ Deploy does not work on our domain, likely due to firewall restrictions. I will eventually go through that process as a last result, but I'd like to avoid it.

Issue we're having is that we have 350 machines on our domain and need to have an MSI installed to them. Our vender supplied a JSON file that has our token information, and the MSI points to it, presuming it's run from the install folder. Obviously we don't want to hit every machine individually for this install...

However, it would appear that the Software Installation through GPO does not allow the MSI to read the JSON file. The application will install, but without our org's information and license attached.

I have a command script that could be used at startup, which would allow the JSON to be seen, however it requires elevated privileges. Our users have standard local accounts, with an admin account name that is based on their location (This is not sorted in our AD, unfortunately) We do have domain admin accounts. RUNAS does not work, and from what I've read hasn't for a while due to a security hole that Microsoft closed up.

I've attempted to adjust the MSI in Orca to have the information already populated, but it seems to just corrupt the file so that's not an option unless someone knows how to get into the knitty-gritty of that better than I.

Most, if not all of the answers I'm finding are pre-Windows 10 so likely would not apply here.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike

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  1. Limitless Technology 43,931 Reputation points
    2023-03-28T15:11:16.0566667+00:00

    Hello there,

    Preferred way of handling this would be Group Policy Software Installation (if no other software distribution software is around).

    You should incorporate the switches and custom properties in an MST file. You can actually do that with Orca from Windows Installer SDK. It compiles MST files out of changes to make in an MSI package. There's no need to compile a new MSI -- in fact, you just deploy the original MSI file and use the MST file from Orca as a modification.

    Hope this resolves your Query !!

    --If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--