RCS - Workstation Operating System and Software Application Installation and Configuration

Roaming Computing System 2.0
Workstation Operating System and Software Application Installation and Configuration

Each time you need to use this document try to use the latest version of it at http://thegoldenear.org/rcs/workstation-installation.html as it gets updated. If you also use the version of TWEAK for Windows that it corresponds to then you'll be using the most up-to-date configuration software and its corresponding instructions.

Instructions to configure workstations to operate within the Roaming Computing System. Do all this whilst logged in as Administrator.

Tools required to follow these instructions	Available from	Version required
TWEAK (The Windows Environment and Application Konfigurator)	http://thegoldenear.org/tweak/	0.8.42
'Windows 2000 Software Installation' document	The Windows Toolbox
'Configuring System BIOS' document	The Windows Toolbox
'Configuring Printers' document	The Windows Toolbox
'Software profile compatibility; installation and configuration details' document to know which directories to install programs into	http://thegoldenear.org/rcs/sw-compatibility.html
A Roaming Computing System 'Administrative Floppy Disk' (a floppy disk which contains specific configurations for your organisation of winnt.sif and shortcuts.ini, see below)
winnt.sif unattended installation script on an Administrative Floppy Disk	The Windows Toolbox (a generic version)
your shortcuts.ini on an Administrative Floppy Disk
your organisation's RCS Support Compendium		2.0.0

Note: TWEAK for Windows won't run over a network so either run it from local removable media (i.e. RCS Support Compendium or the Windows Toolbox) or copy it to a local partition and run tweak.bat from there.

(If you're setting up a system for the first time, its unlikely, but, if there are any existing cached Windows user profiles you may have to remove them - profiles called username.domain-name and other such derivatives can be a problem. To do this, use both System Properties -> User Profiles -> Delete and manually remove any that don't appear under 'User Profiles')

Upgrade firmware on applicable hardware
Configure system BIOS
as per the 'Configuring system BIOS' document

use the same administrative password for all workstations' BIOS configuration
set to boot from CD for the Windows installation then at the first reboot of that installation change it to the first hard disk (AKA HDD-0 or IDE-0)

Regular installation steps, with some amendments for workstations

install fundametal system software as per the 'Windows 2000 software installation' document, but with the following amendments
(write notes on that document of versions of software installed and whether you configured it on a per-machine basis)

use Windows 2000, with the latest trusted Service Pack slipstreamed in, and using the WINNT.SIF unattended installation script on your RCS Administrative Floppy Disk in the A: drive from the outset of the installation
when prompted, create a C: partition using a 2500MB, NTFS, 'primary' partition

when the installation is complete create further partitions [run Disk Management: diskmgmt.msc]

change any optical media drive's drive letter to Z: (so as to have a consistant drive letter across all workstations irrespective of other drives available)
change any additional optical media, ZIP or digital media drive's drive letters to successive reverse alphabetical order from Y: onwards
create a 7500MB 'extended' partition to put these 'logical' partitions in (create a larger partition if doing audio, image or video editing, see E:):

D:, 1500MB for programs, 'logical' (leaves plenty available for future use as our current total possible software is about 600MB)
E:, 5000MB for temporary space, 'logical' (large as stores roaming users' temporary files; use larger if doing audio/image/video editing)
F:, 1000MB for saving data to if file server unavailable (if its broken or for mobile computer users), 'logical'

leave any remaining hard disk space unpartitioned so can assign more to existing partitions if necessary and for option to dual-boot with GNU/Linux

change Windows' default directory for installing programs to (TWEAK: - A -> B) - then reboot for it to take effect

then follow the rest of the 'Windows 2000 software installation' document as normal, up to and including Fonts - we'll be defining explicitly which applications to install later
finally, when you're done, use TWEAK:

per-machine configuration (TWEAK: A ->

A (System file cleanup - choose 'cancel' when asked if you want to restore system files)
D (Configure general Windows system and interface on this machine)
E (Replace BOOT.INI)
F (Per-machine manual settings)
G -> A (Rename IP network interface)
G -> G (Disable LMHOSTS lookup)
repeat A, D and F's 'Add/Remove Windows compnents' section after installing and all the applications

per-user configuration for Administrator (TWEAK: A -> L, N, R, W)
add branding, from your Administrative disk (TWEAK: A -> OA)
Roaming Computing System specific settings (TWEAK: A -> P -> O)
install the Recovery Console (z:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons)
the display screen area should be the same on each workstation. currently we're setting them to 1024x768
disable any unrequired memory resident programs installed by device drivers (such as graphics driver system tray utilities and hotkey services) to save memory and to simplify the desktop [use TWEAK's 'driver configuration' section [TWEAK: F] or do so by hand if they're not covered by TWEAK]; similarly remove any unrequired Start Menu entries for device drivers

Install applications to the workstation in this order
(see the Roadmap's 'Software profile compatibility; installation and configuration details' document for installation options, including which directory to install these into)

for all organisations:

Sun Java Runtime Environment (if you use Java 1.4.1 install it now, or for later versions install it after Mozilla)
Mozilla (finds Java plug-in, doesn't (initially) happen the ther way around - this should be fixed in Java 1.4.2)
Sun Java Runtime Environment (if you use Java 1.4.2 or greater) (use the silent installer: TWEAK: B -> J -> A1)
OpenOffice (finds Java) (silent install available: TWEAK: B -> O-> B or B2 or B3 or B4)
Flash Player (finds Mozilla for the plug-in)
Adobe Acrobat Reader (finds Mozilla for its plug-in)
NoteTab Light
7-Zip
IrfanView (takes file type associations away from Mozilla, but Mozilla still wants them)
F-Prot anti-virus (requires reboot) (use the silent installer: TWEAK: B -> F -> E)

for some organisations only:

PageMaker

PageMaker (requires serial number)
PageMaker update
Acrobat Distiller (note: Distiller 5.0 replaces a Windows 2000 SP3 system file with an older version)

Zinf

for some workstations only:

Nero + Nero BurnRights (silent installer available for Nero BurnRights) (if have CD-writer)
Microsoft Office (for installation options to make see http://thegoldenear.org/toolbox/windows/docs/msoffice.html) (requires a serial number)
QuickBooks (requires a reboot) (requires a serial number)
Pegasus Mail (on file server)

Install application add-ons, etcetera
(this is derived from the table in the Computing System Roadmap)

register Nero (if installed on this workstation) (requires a serial number)
IrfanView plug-ins
any additional fonts specific to your organisation
Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 3 (if used in your system) (currently doesn't work)

Set Program Access and Defaults now after the applications have been installed

'Standard' and 'Master' workstations - application configuration
(your particular organisation may not have all these installed)

per-application configuration (TWEAK needs to be run from its CD for some of these options)

F-Prot (TWEAK: B -> F ->

B (Configure F-Prot, including setting it to download updates from P:)
C (Slacken off F-Prot updater registry key)
D (Set F-Prot Updater to run at system startup)

OpenOffice 1.0.x spellchecker dictionary (TWEAK: B -> O -> C) (not required with OpenOffice 1.1 as en_uk dictionary included)
Adobe Gamma loader - prevent it from loading (TWEAK: B -> AG)
IrfanView (TWEAK: B -> I -> A)
Mozilla (TWEAK: B -> M ->

A (Pre-configure with ALL-CUSTOM.JS)
B (Pre-configure with EDITOR-CUSTOM.JS)
C (Pre-configure BOOKMARKS.HTML)
D1 [Mozilla 1.3] or D2 [Mozilla 1.4-1.6] (Pre-configure LOCALSTORE.RDF)
E (Pre-configure PANELS.RDF) (not required with Mozilla 1.5/1.6)
F (Pre-configure USER.JS)
G (Replace splash screen)

NoteTab Light (TWEAK: B -> NO -> A (Allow each user to have their own individual preferences)
Zinf (if its used in your system) (TWEAK: B -> Z -> A (Add themes))
Pegasus Mail (TWEAK: B -> P ->

A (Set location of system-wide distribution lists and address books)

B or C or D depending on where you have Pegasus installed (Enable Pegasus Mail for web 'mailto:' links))

Java (for versions 1.4.2_1 and onwards) (TWEAK: B -> J -> B)
Microsoft Office (if used in your system) (TWEAK: B -> MO)

some applications need you to create a profile for Administrator (or other higher priviliged account) (because they do some per-machine configuration when the user profile is created, and if other users are restricted users that configuration may not be allowed so will otherwise not be made and problems will ensue):

OpenOffice (TWEAK: B -> O -> G) (OpenOffice.org issue 12589)
Mozilla - disasociate JPG, GIF, PNG and MNG images from loading in Mozilla (Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> System)
does Acrobat Reader require this?

and some applications are just worth configuring for Administrator for when that user needs to use them

NoteTab Light [TWEAK: B -> NO -> G (Configure/refresh this user's NoteTab preferences)]

set various file type associations (i.e. TWEAK: I -> A ->

Office suite files Open in OpenOffice or Microsoft Office (OOO or OOMO)
Image files Open in IrfanView (IOI)
Plain text files Open in NoteTab (PON)
Web files Edit in Mozilla Composer or NoteTab (WEM or WEN)
Plain text files to Edit in NoteTab (that wouldn't want to Open) (PEN)
PDF files Open in Acrobat Reader (use 'POARold' to use the now defunct RCS 2.0 installation location, or POAR to use the new installation location
Audio files (some) Open in Zinf (if its used in your system) (AOZ)
Audio files Edit in Adobe Audition (if its used in your system) (AEAA)

Shortcut and Icon management now after applications have had their opportunities to create their per-machine and per-user icons (TWEAK: D -> A)

'Master' workstations only - application pre-configuration (that which isn't pre-configured on every workstation)

none currently with our suite of applications. (NoteTab's option 'G' only needs running on a master workstation but its our only such setting so we apply it to each workstation, which allows us to use any workstation to initiate new user accounts)

and sundry

defragment all disk partitions
create Emergency Repair Disk (TWEAK: E -> A)

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