Show startup script Win7

[Willuz]

I have an OS and Application installer which requires multiple reboots since it installs service packs, applications, and application patches on an existing stand alone Win7 installation. Since it requires multiple reboots I launch the installer from a powershell startup script in the machine GPO which executes before the user logs onto the machine. This also resolves UAC issues since it executes under the System account.

Unfortunately, the user cannot see Machine startup scripts because windows only shows the "Please Wait..." dialog. Is there any way to show a GUI before Windows logon so that the user knows that the system is not locked up? Or am I just going about this the wrong way? It was easier in XP/2k3 because I could use RunOnceEX, but I cannot find any way to execute using system credentials in Win7 so this did not work without babysitting it to click ok on each UAC prompt.

Any suggestions on this topic are greatly appreciated.

[Tripredacus]

It is by design that the System account does not interact with the user. It is normally frowned upon to even try to enable such a thing as it can cause some security issues.

You can try looking into PSEXEC to run these programs. Here is my point of reference as I just recently learned about it myself.

[Willuz]

Thank you for your suggestion, unfortunately, it did not work. I tried changing the startup script to run the installer using administrator credentials and it still is not visible. To make things worse it now fails to install the hot fixes because the UAC prompt is invisible. At least under the system account there was no need for a UAC prompt so the installs completed even if you couldn't see them. I tried both PsExec and the RunAs command and they both produced the same results.

If I could customize the "Please Wait.." dialog that could be a temporary solution, but still not a perfect one. MS hot fixes already seem to do this during boot when it shows "Configuration Updates" with a % done and it would be awesome if we could do the same thing with custom packages.

[Tripredacus]

No you can't put a GUI at that state because the shell hasn't loaded.

Try using PSEXEC after boot, not during the machine phase. Also you can specify PSEXEC to run as the system account and be interactive with the user. Look at the -i and -s switches.

[IcemanND]

You can configure GPO startup and logon script to run visibly.

Startup:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Scripts\Run startup scripts visible

Logon

User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Scripts\Run logon scripts visible