I read about the security vulnerability with Google desktop search and have been asked to create a login script to detect, and uninstall the desktop search from the desktops. All the PCs are Windows XP and we are using Novell NetWare to login to the network. Has anyone created a login script to do this or can someone give me a hand. How do you go about removing unneccessay applications. Unfortunately, we have some users who are administrators of their local machines and we are just currently looking at Active Directory. Hopefully by summer we will have AD implemented. I am really new to login scripts let alone having one execute the uninstall of an application. Thanks!

Does the uninstall show up in Add/Remove programs? If it does I may be able to give you a script based on the uninstall key in the registry.

Yes it does. That would be great!

In the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall you'll find a key for each entry in the Add/Remove programs list and some other programs that may not be listed there.

Scroll down through the keys until you find the one for Google desktop search.

There will be an uninstall string listed on the right-hand side. You can put this into a batch file that you can use in a login script.

If you're not sure how to do this last part I can help with that too.

How do I add the uninstall string, C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktopSetup.exe -uninstall to a batch file and make it a login script?

If that is what the uninstall string is in the registry key that exrcizn mentioned then yes ... just add that to the batch file

you will then need to take that string and add it to a batch file.

Quick note.. Most cases, this works well for both WinXP and 2k.. however, 1 instance of mine using this method, the uninstall strings werer different for xp and 2000.. and also.. sometimes you have to put start infront of it in the batch file.. it all depends on how the uninstall is called.

So here's where you would start...here's a vbscript that will uninstall the software. If you already know this please don't take offense...open Notepad and copy the script below into it and name it RemoveGoogleDesktop.vbs or whatever other file name you'd like to use. To test it install Google desktop then run the .vbs file from Start, Run.

If this works it's your first step:

On Error Resume Next

'Remove Google Desktop if it is installed

Dim filesys, ws

Set ws = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Set filesys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Test to see if file exist - if it does then Google Desktop is installed

'If the file exists uninstall Google Desktop

If filesys.FileExists("C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe") Then

ws.exec("C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktopSetup.exe -uninstall -silent")

End If

I have re-edit exrcizn to make it so the drive letter does not matter.

Dim filesys, Google, ws
   Set ws = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   Set filesys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
	Google = ws.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ProgramFiles%\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe")
 'Test to see if file exist - if it does then Google Desktop is installed 
  If filesys.FileExists(Google) Then : ws.Run(Chr(34) & Google & " -uninstall -silent" & Chr(34)) : End If

Thanks Gunsmokingman. Good idea.

It was a good script I just added one more varible to it.

I've tried many times but I am still very new to login scripts. We are using Novell NetWare and I cannot seem to get this script to work. I need a NetWare compatible script to uninstall the Google Desktop Search. What am I doing wrong??

Thanks!

It's been so long since I've used Netware (the good ole days) that I can't remember off the top of my head how to do this. I'll have to pass this to someone else.

Good luck!

Anyone???