Software not published through group policy on OEM versions of XP

[adam kilbourn]

We have software that is pushed out through a group policy when a computer is joined to the domain [Office 03 and Acrobat]. Whenever a pc is loaded with a fresh copy of XP Pro from the disc, there are no issues. The pc is joined to the domain, rebooted, and the installation occours. However, on HP/Compaq pre-imaged pc's [ones that have XP Pro loaded from the factory] this will not happen. You can join it to the domain without any problem, but the software will not install. Other parts of the group policy are implemented, just no loading of software. It was possible to move the pc from the OU that is was contained in to that same OU in AD and then reboot [somehow tricking the pc], but now, that does not work either. These do not have SP2 on them. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

[Jon Finley]

This could be a timing issue related to the logon policy setting. XP by default caches the previous logon, then applies group policies in the background. Try enforcing the "Wait for network" policy setting.

gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, Logon, "Always wait for the network...." Enabled.

Jon

[Paul Slijkhuis]

start a command prompt (Start > run > cmd)

type: gpresult
This will show the active GPO's on the PC and for the user logged in (RSOP)

type: gpupdate / force
This will force to apply all GPO's again, despite of the replication schedule.

hth, Paul

[adam kilbourn]

Thanks for your help. I figured it out. Since it worked on the computers that were not pre-imaged by the factory, I knew that it was not a GPO issue or a problem with the group policy settings. The problem was this: tcp/ip media sensing in the nic's. For some reason, hp sets their nic's up to have this on and it will not allow the software to be pushed out. It requiredd a registry hack:
hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip\parameters

add value, reg dword, DisableDHCPMediaSense with a value of 1.

thanks again for your help.