If you have a situation which required PolicyPak Tech Support to help you update a AppSet from your own system, these are the instructions.
To use the PolicyPak DesignStudio, you will need the following components pre-installed on your PolicyPak Creation Station. The machine you put these components on should match the END-POINTS you wish to deploy your AppSet to.
NOTE: It’s best if the PolicyPak Creation Station is a machine that you can use and re-use again. We suggest you use a virtual machine loaded with the following components, which you can then “restore” to “snap back” to this original configuration before creating each AppSet. This idea is borrowed from creating MSI or App-V packages. You want a clean machine with only the PolicyPak Creation Station utilities before installing your package and producing a AppSet.
- If you’re using Windows 7 or Windows 8, the .NET Framework can be introduced through Add/Remove programs, as seen in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: Installing .NET Framework for Windows 7 (left) and Windows 8 (right)
- Next, install Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express Edition or later on your PolicyPak Creation Station workstation. Any edition later than 2008 will work; you only need one.
- Get C++ 2008 Express Edition by visiting http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/8/E/E8EEB394-7F42-4963-A2D8-29559B738298/VS2008ExpressWithSP1ENUX1504728.iso.
- Get C++ 2010 or 2013 Express Desktop edition by visiting https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/express.
- Follow on-screen instructions to install the edition with the latest service packs and prerequisites onto your admin workstation. Note that this can take a long time. Also, if prompted, you do not need to install Silverlight, nor do you need the SQL Express Edition.
Figure 1.2: You can download C++ 2010 Express Edition…
Figure 1.3: …or Visual Studio 2013 Express. Be sure to select only the “Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Dekstop” option.
- Sometimes, on some computers, the web-install version of Visual C++ Express Edition fails to complete. In those rare cases, you can download the full ISO of all the Express Edition products and then install from there. The page to download the full ISO of Visual Studio 2013 for Windows Desktops All-In-One ISO is here: https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?pid=1439
- The download of the full ISO is very large and can take a long time. Again, be sure to install only the C++ from the download, and not (oops!) the wrong package like, say C#, which is not needed.
- After Microsoft C++ 2008 or later is installed, then install PolicyPak Design Studio.msi: This file contains the PolicyPak DesignStudio. This tool allows you to create AppSets quickly. Users familiar with tools like “Visio” will feel at home with DesignStudio.
- (Optional). If you wish to create and deploy GPOs from your PolicyPak Application Settings Manager Creation Station, be sure that the GPMC is installed and the PolicyPak Admin Console.msi is also loaded.
- After installation is complete, your Start Menu should have both the Microsoft Visual C++ Express Edition node and PolicyPak Application Settings Manager nodes within the Start Menu, as seen here in this example station.