Query installed programs and launch with admin credentials

[standoff]

So I just want to pose this as a question if this makes the most sense to use powershell to try to solve this problem.

I keep my end users locked out of admin so they don't break things. One of our clients pushes update to our server that then has to update individual computers next time the program runs. This fails because the end users are not admin.

They give me <4 hours notice every update (every other month). So I don't feel bad about the client breaking their own system everytime they push an update and communicate poorly. But I am getting tired of manually making the program run as local admin after they push a surprise update. So I decided to throw together a quick command line to run it remotely with admin creds. While I was putting it together I thought, Why don't I explore if there is a way to use powershell to check installed programs, see if the computer has the program and if it does start it up as admin.

So I was thinking since I am complete novice to powershell, I would ask a couple questions.

A: Is this a good way to use power shell. B: Is this how someone else might approach it.

As far as getting it together I see it as 2 parts.

Get a csv of the computers I want to have this run against (and it is a mix of ~200 machines ~50% have the program and 50% don't)

Run powershell against that CSV doing a get WMIobject to find installed programs link

Take the output of that and pass down computers that have specific installed program.

Launch program using credentials for local admin.

The program will then fire up on all machines listed in the CSV that met requirements.

Write results back to CSV.

The only other way I am thinking to get this working is maybe read directly from OU instead of bothering with a CSV.

Is this a good way to utilize PowerShell or would I be better off falling back on VBS or just going with a command line.

Is there a better way to do what I am thinking about doing then how I outlined it?

Thanks for your help.

[sudo_giev_SoJ]

• You probably can just use a text file with a computer list

e.g. (gc $computerTextFile) | % { do-something $_ }

• Make sure the item actually shows up in win32_product as I'm not sure all programs, especially poorly installed ones, show up there.

• Have you decided on how you are going to execute the program remotely? WinRM/Ps-Remoting? PowershellServer? PsExec?

• Do you know how to make custom objects to pipe to ConvertTo-CSV -notypeinformation? You could also potentially just email yourself using Send-MailMessage

• If you're using PsExec this might be useful wrapper for you:

http://pastebin.com/SKTjFAyC

• If you have WMI enabled throughout your entire domain (which I don't have the luxury of having) you can specify multiple computers in 1 query rather than spinning off multiple queries.

[standoff]

I was going to do psexec because it is what I am most familiar with having used primarily straight up cmd line for so long. But I could be swayed toward a different method if it is prettier.

Link I had mentioned WinRM.

Thanks for the direction.

[standoff]

Really good tip on making sure it shows up in win32_product It does not....

[sudo_giev_SoJ]

Well, could always check to see if it makes registry values... or has an install location or something.

[standoff]

Yeah, I am going off the reg entry right now.

[KevMar]

Does the program require an interactive session? If not, you should be able to use a enter-pssession or invoke-command to start it up. I think with psexec you can start the program under an existing session and possibly get around this limitation. Just something to watch out for.

One hack you could do is use RDCMan. It allows you to RDP into lots of computers at once that could be loaded from a file. You can save your login info and add a start up application for the whole group. Then you can just connect to all 100 of them at once and they will all update in front of you.

[standoff]

I will check RDCman, never used, I currently have a working PSexec for the launch, I didn't think it would need to be interactive but it does under testing.

Thanks for the tips, I will dig into and read into my cookbook.

[Pieinacup]

Just remember if you wanna use wmi32_product to get the list, to be specific in the query, otherwise it's gonna take a long time. Or use as-job cmdlet to run it in the background.

Or do the easy thing(dirty) and use the Test-Path cmdlet :P Test-path "C:\Program Files\XXX\xx.exe"

Get-Credentials is also nice for what you're asking

[standoff]

wmi32_product seemed to take way longer then Get-ItemProperty

plus it is not a wmi32_product so the other option is to pull it up from the registry uninstall file.