I came across a situation where I wanted to delete all the files and sub-directories out of a a directory.  I wanted to leave my main directory and just delete every thing in it.

I tried using the del command but it does not remove sub-directories.  There is the rd command to remove directories, but it only removes directories that are empty.  The other problem with the RD command is that you need to know the name of the directory.  The solution was to script a file, which is fine because I wanted to schedule this job to run weekly.  I found a script on the Internet that did what I wanted but I had to modify it slightly.  Below is the script along with explanations in red.

echo off

REM Edit your folder path
set CAT=C:\path name
(Set the path of the folder you wish to empty out)

dir “%%CAT%%”/s/b/a | sort /r >> %TEMP%\files2del.txt
(This line scans the directory and saves a list of all sub-directories)
for /f “delims=;” %%D in (%TEMP%\files2del.txt) do (del /F /Q /a:h “%%D” & rd “%%D”)
(Deletes all hidden files and removes directory if empty)
for /f “delims=;” %%D in (%TEMP%\files2del.txt) do (del /F /Q “%%D” & rd “%%D”)
(Deletes all files and removes empty directory)
del /q %TEMP%\files2del.txt
(Deletes temporary list of sub-directories)

The only modification I made to the script was adding the line that deletes all the hidden files.  I had to do this because the original script would leave sub-directories with hidden Thumbs files.

Starting with Java 7 Update 51, Java started blocking certain Java applications.  These applications were deemed outdated and a security risk by Java.  You can still get these to run by changing the security level of Java to allow these to run.  If you need to set the security level of many machines and are pushing Java out through Group Policy you can edit the msi file to push out the desired security setting.  Below are the setting you can add to the Property Table in the msi to change the security level to your needs.

• On installation, the WEB_JAVA argument has the following effect:

  WEB_JAVA=1 enables Java in the browser

  WEB_JAVA=0 disables Java in the browser

• On installation, the WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL argument has the following effect:

  WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL=VH sets the security level to very high

  WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL=H sets the security level to high

  WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL=M sets the security level to medium

You will need to set the WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL=M to be able to run blocked Java applications.

Downloading The MSI’s

Before you can download the full installation msi files you must sign up with Adobe to distribute Flash.  This is free and relatively easy to do so.  At the time of this posting this was the link used to sign up.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=distribution_form&pv=rdr
After you sign up Adobe will send you a link to the full install files.

There are 2 types of installation.  If you are only going to be running Internet Explorer on your machines you only need to download the Active X version.  You will need to download the plugin version if you are running browsers like Firefox and Chrome.

Editing The MSI’s

The msi files can be edited using Orca.  I have not tested any of the switches at this time.

Deploying Via Group Policy (GPO)

Now you are ready to deploy the package via Group Policies. The general process is to do the following:

1. Create new GPO (or use existing GPO for same software title)
2. Copy the install files to a network share
3. Add MSI package
4. Add MST transforms file (note you can only do this at the beginning, and it cannot be changed later).

Turning Off Auto Update

You can turn off the auto update by editing or creating the mmc.cfg file.  The file is located in different spots depending on you OS.  For Windows 32 bit OS’s it will be located in the C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash directory.  For Windows 64 bit OS’s It will be located in both the C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash and the C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlash directories.

The mmc.cfg file I created has the following entries.
AutoUpdateDisable=1  <– “1” turns off the AutoUpdate
SilentAutoUpdateEnable=0  <–  “0” Leaves Silent off “1” Turns it on

The file must be saved using UTF-8 encoding
The file is created automatically if you install Flash using the .exe installer.  If the .msi installer is used the file will not be created.  Be aware that if you have modified the file and update your Flash using the .exe installer, your modified file will be overwritten.

I decided I didn’t want to manually copy the file so I created a startup script that copies the file for me.  I read that a logon script does not work because users may not have permissions to copy the files.  Here is what my startup script looks like.

Set oFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
sNetworkFlashPath = “\SERVERpathmms.cfg”
sLocalFlashPath = “C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlashmms.cfg”
sLocalFlashPath64 = “C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlashmms.cfg”

If oFSO.FolderExists (“C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash”) Then
oFSO.CopyFile sNetworkFlashPath, sLocalFlashPath, True

End If

If oFSO.FolderExists (“C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlash”) Then
oFSO.CopyFile sNetworkFlashPath, sLocalFlashPath64, True

End If

Set oFSO = Nothing

I put this startup script in my GPO that deploys the Flash software.

Download Java

You need to download the full offline installation package.  As of the time of this post the link is
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Extracting The MSI

Double click on the EXE file and leave the installation window open.

Now while that window is still open open up Windows Explorer and go to the below location and you will see the CAB and MSI files that are needed to deploy via GPO.

Note: You need to keep the setup window open for 64bit version because it removes the temp files when you cancel the install process. 32 bit doesn’t but its good practice.

Copy these files to your distribution location (or your staging area where you can modify the file using ORCA)

Modifying The MSI

So now we need to make some changes to the Java MSI installation so that it installs correctly and does not try to auto update seeing as most admins don’t give their users local admin rights. The tool that I use is ORCA, and is available for download from the Microsoft website.

Here are some common properties you can modify.  I have found that changing the update settings work, but if you check in the control panel, it appears as if nothing has changed.

Once you have made the changes you are happy with you can simply save the changes to a MST (transforms) file. The transforms file simply tells the MSI to use its preferred settings, and the benefit is you can have one MSI to multiple MST files.

NOTE: if you wanted to use a transforms file, you need to create a transforms in ORCA first by clicking Transform -> New Transform, and then when you are finished you need to go to Transform -> Generate Transform.

Deploying Via Group Policy (GPO)

Now you are ready to deploy the package via Group Policies. The general process is to do the following:

1. Create new GPO (or use existing GPO for same software title)
2. Copy the install files to a network share
3. Add MSI package
4. Add MST transforms file (note you can only do this at the beginning, and it cannot be changed later).