David, Author at The Random Admin

Install Google Chrome with Powershell

by David | Jul 30, 2021 | Deployments, Information Technology, PowerShell, Resources

My last weekly challenge to myself was to deploy google chrome with Powershell. This one was the hardest because it was hard to find the latest and greatest MSI 64 bit of google chrome. The coding wasn’t too hard after that. How google chrome works, follows suit the same way as firefox did.

The Script

$ChromeSource = "http://dl.google.com/tag/s/defaultbrowser/edgedl/chrome/install/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi"
$Installer = "$ENV:TEMP\Google.msi"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $ChromeSource -OutFile $Installer
Get-Process -Name "Chrome" | Stop-Process -Force
msiexec /i $Installer /qn /norestart
Remove-Item $Installer

The Breakdown

We first start off getting the latest enterprise edition of google chrome. This is the 64-bit version thus the most stable version on them all. This is the version I would install everywhere in a company if I had a choice.

$ChromeSource = "http://dl.google.com/tag/s/defaultbrowser/edgedl/chrome/install/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi"

Then we create the installer path and download the file using the Invoke-webrequest with the Outfile as the installer path.

$Installer = "$ENV:TEMP\Google.msi"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $ChromeSource -OutFile $Installer

Then we stop the google chrome process and install the latest version of google chrome using the msiexec command. Then we remove the installer.

Get-Process -Name "Chrome" | Stop-Process -Force
msiexec /i $Installer /qn /norestart
Remove-Item $Installer

That’s it. Very simple very straightforward. If you need to uninstall before installing (My testing was a success with overlapping the installers) then you can do the following before Installing google chrome:

$Chrome = Get-CimInstance win32_Product | where-object {$_.name -like "*Google*Chrome*"}
$Chrome | Invoke-CimMethod -MethodName Uninstall

Install Firefox with Powershell

by David | Jul 30, 2021 | Deployments, Information Technology, PowerShell, Resources

Need to deploy the latest version of firefox to 1000 machines, Here is a little powerhouse script that can do just that. It’s similar to my last script (Gimp) as it downloads directly from the web. This time we don’t have to parse out a website since Modzilla has it laid out before us.

The Script

$FirefoxSource = "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=win64&lang=en-US"
$Installer = "$ENV:TEMP\ModzillaFirefox.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $FirefoxSource -OutFile $Installer
Get-Process -Name "*firefox*" | Stop-Process -Force
Start-Process -FilePath $Installer -ArgumentList "/s" -Verb runas -wait
Remove-Item $Installer

The Breakdown

The source is awesome. We are downloading directly from the site with their latest 64-bit product. This time we are going with the temporary file and then downloading the file with invoke-webrequest. Then we start the process of installing it with the /s flag which means silent. Since we are coming from the temp folder I threw in the runas flag to run it as the system. This way it installs for all users. Next, we set the wait flag to install the system. From everything I have read, we don’t need to uninstall the previous version to install the newest version. We do however have to stop the process that’s why we have a get process and stop process above. Finally, we remove the installer. That’s it. A lot simpler than Gimp.

Install Gimp with Powershell

by David | Jul 30, 2021 | Deployments, Information Technology, PowerShell, Resources

This little script installs the latest version of gimp 2.10 onto your Windows machine. Let’s take a look at the script and then break it down.

The Script

$DownloadPath = "C:\Temp\Gimp"
If (!(Test-Path -Path "C:\Temp\")) {New-Item -Path c:\ -Name Temp -ItemType Directory }
If (!(Test-Path -Path "C:\Temp\Gimp\")) {New-Item -Path c:\Temp -Name Gimp -ItemType Directory }
$URL = "https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.10/windows/"
$Gimp = Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri $URL -SessionVariable websession
$Links = $Gimp.Links | Where-Object {$_.href -like "*.exe"} | select-object -Last 1
$URLDownload = "$URL$($Links.href)"
$DownloadName = "$DownloadPath\Gimp.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $URLDownload -OutFile $DownloadName
if (Test-path "C:\Program Files\GIMP 2") {
    Get-Process -Name "Gimp*" | Stop-Process
    Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\uninst\unins000.exe" -ArgumentList "/VERYSILENT" -wait
}
Start-Process -FilePath $DownloadName -ArgumentList '/VERYSILENT /NORESTART /ALLUSERS' -wait
Remove-Item $DownloadName

The Breakdown

The first thing we do is set up the path we want to make. Then we test to see if the path exists. If they don’t, we make them. I’m using temp in this cause because I will be deploying this to 2000+ machines. We will remove the installer afterward. I want the Temp folder to existing afterward for future deployments.

$DownloadPath = "C:\Temp\Gimp"
If (!(Test-Path -Path "C:\Temp\")) {New-Item -Path c:\ -Name Temp -ItemType Directory }
If (!(Test-Path -Path "C:\Temp\Gimp\")) {New-Item -Path c:\Temp -Name Gimp -ItemType Directory }

Next, we grab the URL we want to work with This is the gimp’s official download portal. This portal is by default Oldest to newest when you pull from it using Powershell.

$URL = "https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.10/windows/"

Then we use the Invoke-webrequest to grab the website as we did in a previous post. From there we grab all of the links. In this case, since it’s a repo, they are all download links except for 2. We only want the exes of the list, so we use a where-object to find those. Then we select the last 1 as it is the newest version.

$Gimp = Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri $URL -SessionVariable websession
$Links = $Gimp.Links | Where-Object {$_.href -like "*.exe"} | select-object -Last 1

Now we need to build our URL and our Path. This is some string controls. Notice the $($Something.Something) in this code. When you deal with an array in a string and want to grab a sub item, you need to call it out with the $().

$URLDownload = "$URL$($Links.href)"
$DownloadName = "$DownloadPath\Gimp.exe"

Next we download the Gimp 2.10 version we are wanting with another invoke-webrequest. This time we select the Outfile tab.

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $URLDownload -OutFile $DownloadName

Now we want to uninstall the pervious version of Gimp. Since gimp doesn’t show up in the win32_products, we go to it manually in the file system. Newer gimps host themselves inside the program files > gimp 2. So we search to see if that folder exists with a test-path. If it does, we then check to see if gimp is running. Then kill it with fire… ok, not fire, but force. Gimp is awesome about putting an uninstaller inside the file system. So we will use that. It’s located in the Gimp 2 > Uninst > Unins000.exe. Which can be triggered with a /verysilent parameter to keep it quiet. We do this with a start process and we use a flag -wait to wait on it to uninstall.

if (Test-path "C:\Program Files\GIMP 2") {
    Get-Process -Name "Gimp*" | Stop-Process -Force
    Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\uninst\unins000.exe" -ArgumentList "/VERYSILENT" -Wait
}

Then we start the install of the new gimp with the start-process again. We use the Download Name we made eailer with an argument list of /verysilent /norestart /allusers and a -wait.

Start-Process -FilePath $DownloadName -ArgumentList '/VERYSILENT /NORESTART /ALLUSERS' -Wait

Finally we remove the installer with a remote-item.

Remove-Item $DownloadName

That’s all it takes yall. I hope this is helpful to you.

Webroot Deployment

by David | Jul 27, 2021 | Deployments, Group Policy, Information Technology

In this article, I will guide you through the process of deploying webroot via Group Policy. This is a fairly straightforward process with only a little editing of the MSI. I am assuming you know how to download the MSI from the webroot portal. The portal changes often, so, I will leave this part out. If you are ready, throw on your group policy pins, and let’s get started.

Super Orca

The first thing you will need is the Super Orca. You can download it here, link. Once you get super orca installed, we will be able to download and set up the webroot MSI.

Open Super Orca
Open the Webroot MSI.
Click the Property On the left (Red Block).
Click GUILIC (Green Block)
Enter the Key Number
Click File
Click Save As
Save as a different name. ALWAYS KEEP THE ORIGINAL!

Shared Folder

Now you have the MSI ready. You need to place it into a shared folder location. This location has to be accessible to every computer in the company as a minimum of read-only. Make sure the share is shared! I can’t tell you how many times I made this mistake. If it’s shared, good, make sure some of the clients can reach it.

Group Policy

Now we have the MSI ready to go. It’s time for the group policy. It’s a very simple computer policy. In my experience, a lot of IT managers don’t want AVs on servers. So, this tutorial will include a wmi filter. Let’s get to it.

Open Group Policy.
Create a new policy and name it Workstation Webroot Deployment
Right click the policy and select edit
Computer > Policies > Software Settings > Software Installation
Right Click and select New.
Select the file for the installer.
Click Ok
Exit the policy

Now the WMI Filter.

Double click the policy
Right Click the WMI Filter (Purple Arrow)
Click Add (Red Arrow)
Enter: select * from win32_operatingsystem where producttype = 1
1. The numbers mean:
  1. Workstation
  2. Domain Controller
  3. Server
Click Ok
Under the WMI Filter Select the WMI Object.

All that is left is linking the GPO. Now you can link it wherever you want. Most orgs have an OU just for workstations and one for servers just for this case. It doesn’t matter where you link it the WMI filter will ignore servers and only hit the workstations.

As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask. If you ever see anything that is wrong, feel free to reach out and correct me. Thank you for reading.

Resource – SHD Get ACL

by David | Jul 16, 2021 | Information Technology, PowerShell, Resources

Ever need to combine Get-childitem and Get-ACL while only pulling the access information and users? Well, here we are. I hope you all can use it well.

function Get-SHDACL {
    [cmdletbinding()]
    param (
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$Path,
        [string]$Filter,
        [switch]$Recurse,
        [switch]$Directory,
        [switch]$File
    )
    begin {
        if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey("filter")) {
            if ($File) {
                if ($Directory) {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Directory -File -Filter $Filter
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory -File -Filter $Filter
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -File -Filter $Filter
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -File -Filter $Filter
                    }
                }
            } else {
                if ($Directory) {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Directory -filter $Filter
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory -Filter $Filter
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Filter $Filter
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Filter $Filter
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            if ($File) {
                if ($Directory) {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Directory -File
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory -File
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -File
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -File
                    }
                }
            } else {
                if ($Directory) {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Directory
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($Recurse) {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse
                    } else {
                        $SubPath = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    Process {
        
        foreach ($Sub in $SubPath) {
            
            $ACLinfo = Get-Acl -Path $sub.FullName
            $Return += foreach ($ACL in $ACLinfo.Access) {
                [pscustomobject]@{
                    Path             = $Sub.FullName
                    FileSystemRights = $ACL.FileSystemRights
                    ID               = $ACL.IdentityReference
                    Type             = $ACL.AccessControlType
                    Inherited        = $ACL.IsInherited
                }
            }
        }
    }
    end {
        $Return
    }
}

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Donation Links:
PayPal
CashApp