Desktop Authority Express Manuals

If you manage a Windows-based network,then you already know that most of your day-to-day management chores revolve around redundant, user-centric tasks. Your time is wasted on tasks like drive mappings, Outlook profiles,desktop shortcuts,and Service Pack updates. At first,these are done at each workstation, by hand (groan!). Then you smarten up a bit and realize there are a wide range of tools to help you get this work done. Most administrators use one or more of the following:

Native Microsoft Technologies(such as logon scripts, roaming profiles and group policies)

Drive Imaging Products(such as Symantec Ghost or PowerQuest Drive Image)

Software Packaging Products(such as Wise Installer or Prism Deploy)

Desktop Management Tools(such as Microsoft SMS or Altiris Client Management Suite)

With these tools, you begin to proactively administer networked computers and decrease time spent managing and administering end user specific settings. However,since no single tool comprehensively manages your desktop and user configurations,a number oftools are used. So many times the combinations of tools do not work well together and can even inject a new level of complexity into
your routine.This is where you need a single desktop administration tool to simplify the use of your existing suite of management tools, by either eliminating one or more of the tools that truly are not getting the job done well or by allowing the existing management tools to focus on the tasks they do best. The introduction of a desktop administration tool will offload those redundant and time-consuming desktopconfiguration tasks.

The purpose ofthis white paper is to demonstrate how combining desktop administration software, such as ScriptLogic®, will not only enhance how you manage your desktop environment, but will also enable you to get more done with less effort in ashorter period oftime.

We will do this by showing how the previously listed tools cannothandle well both the redundant user tasks and the day-to-daychanges needed in an ficient,timely,cost-effective manner.

Most administrators characterize desktop administration asmore ofthe ?

There are a handful of tools built into Microsoft Windowsservers that allow you to do some basic network management.One of the most common is the logon script. Because everyuser takes part in the log on process,there is little chance ofauser being overlooked,as can happen when applying updatesmanually.Also,ifa user does not connect to the network forlong periods of time, any updates or changes listed in thelogon script will be waiting on them when they reconnect.

Typically, network administrators have their preferredsoftware "toolkit" to perform logon scripting:

Shell Scripts/Batch Files?

Since most desktop administration involves ?

Whether your desktops are setup using a drive imaging solutionor are installed by hand, creating software "packages"is a veryefficient way of distributing preconfigured or customized applications to end users. Using a variety of third party tools, such asWises Installer and Prisms Deploy, network administrators cantake an application and create packages for specific users basedon their needs.

These packages are also distributed across thenetwork from a centralized installation point.The one pointto take notice ofis that these packaging tools only create thatwhich is to be distributed; they do not do the distributing. Getting the correct package to the right user,as well as finalizing any user-specific settings,such as data location or other Registry settings,is where desktop administration comes in.When a user logs on, a desktop administration tool such as ScriptLogic can check to see ifthe package has already been installed,and ifnot, launch the installation.

You can easily choose who should receive the package from the centralized ScriptLogic console,and best of all you can "set it and forget it."No matter when the user logs in, whether its today or next month, they will receive the package. This helps make sure that all ofyour users are up to date,no matter when they log into the network.Using the many different validation criteria, you can additionally customize how and when software is installed on the clients PCs.

Those IT departments that can afford the expense ofdedicated servers,software and staffchoose to utilize Desktop Management software, such as Microsofts SMS and Altiris Client Management Suite.These tools help you deploy applications,
manage your software and hardware assets,perform software metering and distribute security patches. These are very comprehensive solutions,but also tend to be complex to use,

very expensive,and require additional server resources. Ifyou already have a Desktop Management solution in place, a desktop administration solution enhances your existing tools by providing elements not found in them natively,such as printer deployment,mail profile creation,Outlook settings, and folder redirection. If no Desktop Management solution is currently in use,you may find that a desktop administration tool will adequately perform the same required tasks with the needed administrative granularity, without the added
complexity and cost.

As companies began to move away from Novell NetWare networks in the mid- to late-1990s to Microsoft Windows NT-based networks, network administrators quickly found out that they were giving up some of the management featuresthey had taken for granted.NT networks lacked true centralized domain desktop administration and had virtually no native logon scripting support.Instead ofmaking network
management easier, NT networks began to require more time to administer than their NetWare counterparts. As Microsoft released Windows 2000 Server, and even with Windows 2003 Server, there are additional management tools built into the operating systems, but you are still left with batch files, group policies, and user profiles to try to maintain users and desktops.

In 1999,after an exhaustive search for a management packagethat would fill this void,ScriptLogic Corporation was formedand development began on NTScript, the precursor to thecurrent ScriptLogic product line. ScriptLogic automatestime-consuming and repetitive administration tasks bycombining logon scripting,user profile management,andsecurity policies into a single easy to use,GUI-based managementconsole.Thus,the first intuitive logon scripting managementsolution for NT was created.

As ScriptLogic released NTScript, they not only created apiece ofsoftware,but also ultimately created an entire softwaregenre.Four years after pioneering the ?

Before ScriptLogic came along, there were no scripting/desktop administration solutions that were easy to use andthat were cost effective.Over the last four years,a handful ofcompeting products have been released. ScriptLogic is theonly application that has an extensible API yet is very intuitiveto learn.Other products can require overly complex scriptingor configuration,are very expensive,or just plain don?

ScriptLogic Administrator Guide

ScriptLogic Getting Started Guide

ScriptLogic and ActiveDirectory GPO's

ScriptLogic and SMS 2.0 Comparison

ScriptLogic Essentials Tools for the Administrator