Deploying Software using Group Policy in Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 R2 includes a feature called Software Installation and Maintenance that AD DS, Group
Policy, and the Windows Installer service use to install, maintain, and remove software from your
organization’s computers.

In this post this time, lets go through a simple step how we can deploy software to our infrastructure using GPO.

For this demo, i will be using Adobe Reader X as my application.

1 – In your Domain Server, open Server Manager, click Tools and open Group Policy Management…

– In the Group Policy Management console, right click domain name which isosi.com.my, and click Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here…

2 – In the New GPO box, in the Name box, type Deploy Adobe Reader, and then click OK…

3 – Next, on the Group Policy Management console, right click Deploy Adobe Reader GPO and click Edit…

4 – In the Group Policy Management Editor, under Computer Configuration, expand Policies, and
then expand Software Settings.

– Right-click Software installation. From the context menu, click New, and then click Package…

5 – In the Open dialog box, browse to \\dc01\Adobe, click AdbeRdr1000_en_US.msi, and then click
Open.

6 – In the Deploy Software window, ensure that the Assigned option is selected, and then click OK…

7 – Wait for few second and verify that the Adobe ReaderX is listed in the Group Policy Management Editor…

8 – Now lets switch to our Windows 8.1 client PC, i do recommend that you run gpupdate /boot /force in the client PC and then restart the client PC.

— after restarting your client PC and log in as domain user, you can verify that Adobe is installed.

That’s all for now.. i will continue later with Configuring Folder Redirection in Windows Server 2012 R2…