Remote Deployment via Active Directory Group Policy

Administrators can remotely deploy a client application to a large number of machines via Active Directory Group Policy by assigning a user logon script to a Group Policy Object. After installing the client, each user must enter credentials to authenticate to WS_FTP.

Note: You must run the installer as an Administrator.

Requirements

Remote Deployment via Group Policy

Note: Always test the remote deployment on non-production computers before installing the client on your users' computers.

To install via Active Directory Group Policy:

  1. Configure a Group Policy Object that applies to all users for whom you plan to install the client. See Microsoft Windows Server documentation for information about configuring Group Policy Objects in Active Directory.
  2. Create a new user logon script in any language supported by the users' computers that calls this command to run the installer from a shared location:
    msiexec /i \\[sharename]\[sharepath]\[executable].msi /q DRIVER_NAME="xftWSFTPDriver.dll" DEFAULT_HOSTNAME="[Ad Hoc Transfer server address]" DEFAULT_SECURE="TRUE" DEFAULT_PORT="443"
Note: You cannot use the Connection_ properties (for example, CONNECTION_USER and CONNECTION_PASS) as those are for configuring a specific user. Users must enter their credentials to authenticate to WS_FTP after logging onto Windows. See Silent Install of the Ad Hoc Transfer Plug-in for Outlook for the complete list of install properties and their usage.

3. Ensure that each requirement is met on all users' computers before running the Microsoft Windows Installer (.msi).

  • Each end user's computer must meet the System Requirements described in the Release Notes.
  • (All OS; Outlook plug-in only) If not already installed, choose the appropriate architecture and language for the system and download the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime from the Microsoft Download Center. Use these commands for silent installations:
    • 32-bit: vstor40_x86_<lang>.exe /quiet
    • 64-bit: vstor40_x64_<lang>.exe /quiet
Note: You must install all requirements before running the installer, otherwise the client will not install properly.

4. Use the Group Policy Management Console to assign the user logon script for the client installation to the Group Policy Object. For information on assigning user logon scripts, see:

After you run the silent install, the default values in the table above can be found in the following folder on the end user's computer: 

C:\ProgramData\Progress\Ad Hoc Transfer Plug-in for Outlook\DefaultClientRepositorySettings.xml

By default, the installation is for "All Users" on the computer. When an end user launches the client or the MOVEit Connector, the default settings information is copied to that user's settings file, so that each user has a settings file. The name of the currently logged on user is added to the settings file. Each user will need to enter their MOVEit password (and possibly their username) to complete the configuration.

For more information on entering the username and password, see End User Configuration.