Managing Files Stored Locally On Large Numbers Of Pcs

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Wed May 28, 2003 8:49 am

Greetings,

If anyone cares to share, I'd love to hear how you are managing locally stored files on a large quantity of PCs.

For instance, we have found it best to keep url.txt local, and each time we wish to add another URL to block, we'd prefer not to have to do it on an individual basis on many different PCs.

The machines with PWB are running Win98, but a Windows XP Pro and a Windows NT Server (still version 4.0!) are tapped into the network, with the latter server serving as the domain controller.

Is there a way to use batch files to automate such a task? Scott mentioned something to me about using the administrative C$ share....any help with this, or directing me to a website would be great.

Again, I've poked around the forum, but haven't found what I'm looking for. I'll continue looking on the Web and newsgroups at large.

Thanks,

Jeff

spragers · Post by **spragers** » Wed May 28, 2003 8:56 am

I've also tried to combine the convenience of only having to update one file, with the speed of using files locally on each computer. What I do is I run PWB through a script, which first copies all of the relevant files off of the "server" station, and then runs PWB - that way, every time a user logs on, they have the most up-to-date configuration, but they're not trying to access files over the network. This has helped somewhat, but we still have certain lag issues even on our new P4 2.4Ghz station (i.e. new windows take almost ten seconds to open) which I've been trying to figure out.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 28, 2003 9:56 am

So you're just running a batch file that transfers the latest version of the files from some server, then copies these files to the local drive? And I would imagine you're specifying this batch file as a startup script....

Thanks,

Jeff

spragers · Post by **spragers** » Wed May 28, 2003 10:04 am

Essentially - I've actually been working on a PC checkout system, so when a user clicks on Internet Explorer, they actually are running a Visual Basic Script file - which copies the files over from the server computer, and then verifies that the card number that gets entered by the patron is the one that was checked out to this computer from the sign-out station.

You could accomplish the same thing by running a batch file which copies the files and then runs PWB. You could also do this at startup, if you don't want that extra network traffic everytime someone sits down to go online.

Our resource library keeps telling us to buy into their Pharos system. I say, why pay for something we can do for free?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 28, 2003 1:38 pm

Added a few more lines to the batch file, to copy various files from the server to the local C: drive. Works like a champ. Had a little bit of a problem getting the batch file itself to close when invoked from the server, rather than locally. Now it closes fine.

Sure beats managing each PC separately!

Jeff