This is an outline of what I do when I set up a new Windows machine. This is not
intended to be a complete guide; it's more intended for other staff to see what I do.
Most of the new Windows machines we get from Dell, Gateway, Compaq have W2K pre-installed.
The W2K install will run a mini-setup when it's booted the first time. The mini-setup
will do slightly different things depending on the manufacturer. The first task is to
get the locale, time-zone, date/time, etc. right. Then you'll have to join the Physics
domain, (at least if the box will be on the Smith Lab LAN). From here I'll start itemizing...
- Did you get an anti-virus pre-install? Check out the anti-virus notes I've made. Installing some kind of anti-virus software and running updates on engine and data should be your absolute first priority. You do not want to log on to the new machine with domain admin privs until you install/update the anti-virus software.
- MS Office, and especially the service release update(s), are the most time-consuming installs you'll do, so you might as well do them now. Did you get the customer to buy a copy of the Buckeye Bundle? I do a custom install and run everything from the local computer. You'll still have to run Outlook once afterwards from an admin account to finish the install.
- Exceed 7 is a commonly requested, big, application. The customer will need to buy a license for this also. You'll need to perform some post-install fiddly-bits if you're using NTFS; (like make the log file Exceed wants to use writable). You'll need to get the display ID for BD so he can allow XDMCP queries from the server. You'll need to allow the client, (Campbell, for instance), to modify the access control list on the server. Most people have no idea how to create an XDM session from scratch using Exceed, so a saved session shortcut for Campbell and/or OHSTPY on the desktop would be nice.
- I've always wanted to use the packages in what used to be \\scully\upcf\SMS Packages\2000 packages. It's a cool theory. You'll probably end up installing the stuff manually, at least until we clean the blood and gore up from the latest death of Kenny... I mean Scully, and put that stuff somewhere else.
- Things that you'll find on the PCF Disk and want to install for your client:
- winzip
- ghostscript/ghostview
- eudora (yuk! if you must install, have eudora point to u:\eudora3)
- acroread
- secure shell (2.4 at the least)
- wsftp
- miktex
- netscape
- If you install Netscrape, you'll probably want to run PCF_PATCHES.EXE to kill the walking dead which is Netscape Profiles. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. You will also need to fiddle with file permissions on an NTFS system to get Netscape to work right. Specifically, in WINNT on the system drive, you'll need to make nsreg.dat writable.
- I want to update pcf_patches to automate some of the above...
- clean up the desktop. Netscape especially will create a lot of litter.
- Go to the Windows update site and get anything that looks important.
- I've got a number of registry tricks that I've accumulated over the years, but I want to incorporate that stuff into our usage of Group Policies.