You can use Active Directory Group Policy to publish or assign the Configuration Manager 2007 client to computers in your enterprise. When you assign the Configuration Manager 2007 client to computers using Group Policy, it will be installed when the computer first starts. When you publish the Configuration Manager 2007 client to computers using Group Policy, it will be displayed in the control panel Add or Remove Programs dialog box of the computer, from where it can be installed.

The Windows Installer executable Ccmsetup.msi is used for Group Policy based installations. This file can be found in the folder <ConfigMgr installation directory>\bin\i386 on the Configuration Manager 2007 site server. It is not possible to add properties to this file to modify installation behavior.

If the Active Directory Schema is extended for Configuration Manager 2007 and Publish this site in Active Directory Domain Services is selected in the Advanced tab of the Site Properties dialog box then client computers will automatically search Active Directory for installation properties.

If the Active Directory schema has not been extended, then you can use the procedures specified in How to Provision Configuration Manager Client Installation Properties using Group Policy and How to Assign Configuration Manager Clients to a Site to store installation properties in the registry of computers which will be used when the Configuration Manager 2007 client is installed.

For information about using Active Directory Group Policy to install software, refer to your Microsoft Windows server documentation.

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