Systems Management

Well off of the top of my head this is done via editing the MSIs to suit what shortcuts / locations you want them in. Still the functionality is not the same as Zen with the ability to do pre / post launch scripts and the availability settings. Most of those features can be attained by writing VBS to control the application launching.

The behavior will be different which should be accepted when changing the application management infrastructure. So you can have similar behavior in a SMS / AD environment but it will not be quite the same way. I really don't know of any application suite that works just like Zen but I will advise you that I did work in an environment where they used the ZenLite agent and that codebase is significantly more unstable than the full Novell client and native Zen Agent.

Doesn't the latest version of the Altiris "Application Metering Solution" solution allow this?

http://www.altiris.com/products/applicationmetering/

This sounds similar to what you're describing to me?

"User, group, and time based application collections—Block a specified computer from using applications during business hours or other definable time periods. Blocks can be based on application, application type, user, and computer."

As a matter of interest, how do you currently deal with file associations (and other advertising entry points)?

It sounds like you're controlling the availability of an application's shortcuts, but what if a user tries to open a document that has a file extension which is associated with the application?

If you happen to use McAfee 8.0i / E-Policy Orchestrator, you can set your on-demand risk access lists and/or unwanted program policies to exclude these applications. Weither its launched from a shortcut, or a file association, its stopped. ePO, you can enforce this in a directory model, only hitting the groups you want. You can build your policy one way to target the executables in question, or another way to target only its associated filetypes, if the application can be used for something else. If you don't use ePO, but you do use 8.0i, repackage the installation with the file access / unwanted programs policies in the installation and deploy.

Hi there.

I am in exactly the same boat!!!

Why is it that everyone slags off Novell and yet the simple things all Netware Admins take for granted just can't be done using any Microsoft products. You always have to find something by a 3rd party vendor. Anyway, I digress.

What you need is a product called CSE Workspace Explorer. It's the only thing that comes anywhere near to NAL. It's marketed purely for educational establishments but, having spoken to the Company's MD I know they are prepared to sell to the private sector.

If you want to see what it can do have a look here... http://www.waltonpriory.staffs.sch.uk/school_version.htm

Another site you might like to look at is www.scriptlogic.com They do 2 products, Cloak and Desktop Authority.

Cloak will hide Microsoft Shares from people who do not have permissions to access them. Desktop Authority will do all of the other stuff you would normally do with Zenworks, ie, Patch management, Desktop control, Drive mappings. Mostly stuff we use to do using logon scripts in 5 minutes but would take a month to write a script for using AD!!!

Hope this helps.

Mike

BEng(hons), ACSM, CNE, MCSE.

One third party product to control access to applications, that is worth mentioning is SecureWave's ApplicationControl, but beware, this works most probably way different the Novell/ZENworks

SecureWave Sanctuary Application Control

SMS 2.0 had app launch control, then they removed it from 2003 due to customer feedback.
I wonder what customers they were talking with??... anyway here is another app... client server model.
http://www.sassafras.com/default.html