For a while now Skype have offered a MSI, a ADM template and a nifty little guide on Enterprise Deployment considerations but so far I haven’t found a decent guide which shows how to bring all of these components together to get Skype out there on your client PCs.
In this guide I will be looking to, deploy Skype 6.3 to my clients using GPO/MSI, remove the desktop shortcut, remove its ability to auto launch on login, restrict access to file transfers, put in proxy settings and prevent automated updates (among a few other things that can be done through GPO).
A few things you will need
- A read of the Enterprise Deployment guide (its from 2010 but is still valid) – http://www.skype.com/go/administrators.guide
- The MSI – http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-msi (updated May 2016)
- The ADM template (right click save target as) – http://download.skype.com/share/security/Skype-v1.7.adm
- The Orca tool MSI editor tool (part of the Windows 7 SDK) – a guide to installing it can be found here https://myworldofit.net/?p=1368
After a few requests the transform file (pre created as specified above) is now available in the ZIP file below
Skype 6 Transform (986 bytes, 3,055 hits)
The screen shot sequence below shows how to get everything rolling.
Awesome help. I struggled with re-packaging through Advanced Installer and searching for Enterprise Deployment eventually led me here. A shame its not the top result! Thanks so much!
Thanks for the feedback!
Only a new article but hopefully it’ll make the way up the rankings soon.
Helped a lot 🙂 Thank you
Simply said: GoodJob !!! Many Thanks.
Any idea where to get the most recent ADMX template?
I’m afraid that’s the most recent one that I know of.
One would hope that with Microsoft now owning Skype they would update their guides/ADMX.
What feature are you looking to change anyway as there could be another way?
Hello Guys, I have a quick question. I created a GPO using this adm template and put on the User OU. Should I deploy this version Skype 6.3 or the current version client will work without issues?.
Thanks!
Hello,
I need to deploy skype via GPOs (software installation). The MSI, and the ‘transforms’ ( MST ) files can be specified in the GPO (there is a MST file-browser in the software installation GPO called “computer config/policy/software/software installation”)
Hopefully, the well know doc there talks about pre-made MST transforms :
http://community.skype.com/t5/Windows-desktop-client/Unattended-install/m-p/184740#M18609
The Skype msi developers ‘transforms’ are :
msiexec /i SkypeSetup.msi TRANSFORMS=:RemoveDesktopShortcut.mst
msiexec /i SkypeSetup.msi TRANSFORMS=:RemoveAllShortcuts.mst
msiexec /i SkypeSetup.msi TRANSFORMS=:RemoveStartup.mst
However, I can’t get these 3 files.
Do you now how is it possible to get these simple MST ? where can be found these 3 files ?
Fantastic, Microsoft should pay you for this.
good guide – many thanks. I have found that old versions of Skype cease to run and demand an update. This is of course not tractable when users are not admins. Solar winds Patch Manager can update Skype and we may well end up using that.