Using Login Scripts for Push Installation

Push installation from login scripts can be used on computers running MS-DOS or Windows 3.x with the following real-mode network clients:

• Microsoft Workgroup Add-on for MS-DOS
• LAN Manager 2.x real-mode network client
• Novell® NetWare® real-mode network client (NETX or VLM)
• Windows for Workgroups real-mode and protected-mode network clients

The following sections describe how to use a common Upgrade account rather than changing every user's login script to install Windows 95. This method avoids activating the Setup process again after Windows 95 has been installed. However, using a common Upgrade account might not work in some corporate environments, where INI files are copied to users' directories based on the user name specified at logon. In such cases, if Windows 95 is installed using an Upgrade account, each user's application settings will not be migrated to Windows 95. In such cases, you can add statements to setup scripts to copy the related INI files to C:\WINDOWS as part the installation process.

Other methods you can use with login scripts to avoid the problem of running Setup a second time include adding a statement to the login scripts to check the MS-DOS version with alternate actions defined when the version is Windows 95.

To use the method described in this section for push installations (for either protected-mode or real-mode network clients), you must do the following in addition to installing the Windows 95 source files and creating setup scripts:

• For Windows for Workgroups computers, create a STARTUP.GRP file that contains the command line for starting Windows 95 Setup, as described in "Preparing a STARTUP.GRP File" later in this chapter.
• Create the login scripts that will be used to start the installation process.
• Create the special user accounts that will be used to run the login scripts.

A push installation actually begins when the user logs on to the client computer.

Important

If the login script processor stays in memory after starting Windows 95, and if the computer is not correctly configured to use extended memory, then there might not be sufficient memory available to run Setup. However, the method presented here for using a STARTUP.GRP file with Windows for Workgroups avoids memory problems in push installations. For login scripts on NetWare networks, you can use an exit command that runs Windows 95 Setup after the login script is complete.

You can also remove unnecessary TSRs and device drivers to increase the available memory before Setup begins. For information about how to define statements in a setup script for changing the system configuration as part of installation, see Appendix D, "MSBATCH.INF Parameters."