IMPORTANT:
- This article is provided-as is without guarantee that this exact procedure applies to all Active Directory Domain Controllers that are currently deployed. The article assumes that the reader is well knowledgeable with regards to administrating Windows Servers, Group Policy making and setting resource permissions.
- This article applies to Windows Server 2008 or newer, including Windows Server 2019 Active Directory Group Policy.
RingCentral App desktop is also available in Microsoft Installer package, to enable system administrators and application roll-out teams to seamlessly deploy the app to many Windows workstations from a central location. RingCentral App desktop MSI installer can be be set to push install from a Microsoft Group Policy object, users will see the install process when they log-in to their machines or restarted it, whichever comes first.
To push deploy RingCentral App desktop to domain member workstations, do the following:
- From the Windows Active Directory Domain Controller Server, click Start > type “gpmc.msc” (Group Policy Management Console) without the double quotes.
- The Group Policy Management window will appear. Expand Forest > Domains > (name of domain) > Group Policy Objects > (name of Domain Policy).
- Right-click the Domain policy where you wish to deploy the RingCentral Microsoft Installer package. Choose Edit from the menu.
- The Group Policy Management Editor appears, from this point – a question needs to be answered. Do you wish to deploy RingCentral App desktop per-user or per-machine?
- If per-user, Navigate starting from User Configuration > Policies > Software Settings.
- Alternatively, for per-machine deployment, Navigate starting from Computer Configuration > Policies > Software Settings.
- Right-click Software Installation > New > Package… menu.
- The Open dialog box appears; choose the RingCentral App desktop msi installer from its network path common installation source. Group Policy Management Editor will not accept it if the source of the MSI file is from a local folder. GPMC requires that the MSI file is stored in a shared network folder where all users and computers that need the RingCentral app desktop have permissions to access.
- The Deploy Software dialog box appears, choose the Assign radio button to accept the default install behavior of the MSI file or choose the Advanced radio button to further tweak its install properties.
- RingCentral App MSI will appear on the queue for push installation to the workstations or users, depending on the chosen path between step #5 or step #6. Per-user install will happen as soon as the user logs-in to the Windows workstation with network connection. Per-machine install will happen after a restart of the PC or straight from a cold boot.
To remove RingCentral App desktop installed via GPO do the following:
- Open Group Policy Management Editor (similar to step 4 above).
- From the left-pane, navigate to the Software Installation subheading.
- Right-click the name of the software that requires to be uninstalled from the workstations, in this case RingCentral app.
- From the right-click context menu, choose All Task > Remove option.
- The Remove software dialog box appears, choose a removal method.
First is to immediately remove the software from the users and computers, while the second option enables the user to continue using RingCentral app that is already installed in their workstations, but it will not be updated again.
NOTES:
- It isn’t possible to pass MSIEXEC filters (switches) to an MSI file deployed with Active Directory Group Policy. This can be done with an alternative method by creating a Microsoft Transform file (MST) to install custom parameters through Group Policy. MST file is generated using a Microsoft tool called ORCA, which Microsoft describes as: “a database table editor for creating and editing Windows Installer packages and merge modules.“
- The use of Orca tool is beyond the scope of this article. We recommend you visit this archived version of a Microsoft knowledgebase article explaining how to use it. For manual install of an app using the MSIEXEC command line tool, Microsoft provide an extensive article on its command-line switches for installation, reinstallation and uninstallation.
- For silent installation of RingCentral App for local machines using the Microsoft Installer package, please see this article.
Batch Ccommands
Using batch commands allow account or IT administrators to manage the RingCentral app for multiple users. For the other RingCentral applications, click the respective links below:
- Batch Commands to Manage RingCentral Meetings
- Batch Commands to Manage RingCentral Phone
- Batch Commands to Manage RingCentral for Outlook
- Batch Commands to Manage RingCentral Meetings for Outlook
Silent install/update command for the RingCentral app
Use the command below:
| MSIEXEC.EXE /i “%dir%\RingCentral-x64.msi” /qn |
- Replace %dir% with the file path of your installer
- Needs to be run as the currently logged-on user
- Admin rights are not needed to install this package.
- With MSI on each new user login, a new copy of user data is stored in appdata/roaming but exe and binaries remain in Program Files.
Silent uninstall command for the RingCentral app
Use the command below:
| MSIEXEC.EXE /x “%dir%\RingCentral-x64.msi” /qn /norestart |
- Replace %dir% with the file path of your installer
- Needs to be run as the currently logged-on user
- Needs to be executed when the user is logged in
- Removing the /norestart flag will cause the computer to reboot without asking.
NOTE: Read Microsoft Installer-based Enterprise Deployment of RingCentral To Workstations for instructions on deploying RingCentral App desktop via Windows Active Directory Group Policy Editor.
Ref:
https://support.ringcentral.com/article/Batch-Commands-to-Manage-RingCentral-App.html