Network installation guide.

Version 3.1 – 17th October 2018

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Installing Claro software on a network
Customers owning a site licence or multi-user licence version of a Claro product are able to distribute that product
over more than one computer. This could be done by visiting each computer with the installation software (e.g. on a
USB memory stick) and manually installing the products, but this is time-consuming. If the computers are connected
on a network, it is instead possible to use standard Microsoft network operations to install the software from a
central location.

All Claro products use Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) files for installation. This means that standard Microsoft
installation techniques can be used. These are described in the following sections.

Each MSI file comes with a CAB file, which contains the actual files for the program. You must keep the CAB and MSI
files together, or installation will fail. If required the MSI and CAB file can be combined into a single MSI using our
MSI Creator program.

You will probably have downloaded the Claro MSI and CAB files in a large Zip file. This contains multiple programs
(ClaroRead, ScreenRuler, AudioNote, ClaroCapture, Save to Video), each as an MSI file and a CAB file. They can all be
installed using the same techniques as ClaroRead.

You will also have some voice MSI files you can download, and install in the same way. These are our high-quality
synthesized speech voices: these sound great, but can eat up more disk space than you want. See the Voices section
below.

For any help, contact support@clarosoftware.com.

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Contents

Distributing ClaroRead over a network in Windows Server 2003 ......................................................................... 4

Creating a Distribution Point ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Creating a Group Policy Object................................................................................................................................................... 5

Distributing ClaroRead over a network in Windows Server 2008 ......................................................................... 9

Setting up a share ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Setting up the distribution script .............................................................................................................................................. 11

Distributing ClaroRead over a network in Windows Server 2012 ........................................................................15

Setting up a share.................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Setting up the distribution script ........................................................................................................................................... 17

Installing for RemoteApp ...................................................................................................................................23

Installing ClaroRead using a batch script ............................................................................................................24
Setting up a share ..................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Creating the batch file .............................................................................................................................................................. 26
Setting the script to run at logon.............................................................................................................................................. 26

Prerequisites......................................................................................................................................................27
Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 ........................................................................ 27

Voices ................................................................................................................................................................27
Combining MSI and CAB files .............................................................................................................................27

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Distributing ClaroRead over a network in
Windows Server 2003
This guide will show you how to deploy ClaroRead using Windows Server 2003 and Group Policy. This guide assumes
you are familiar with how to operate your Windows network, that you have already setup Windows Server 2003 and
have configured your users and groups in Active Directory.

We use Microsoft Windows Installer MSI files for all our installers so they work well with Windows networks and
they all install in a similar way. You can use this guide for ClaroIdeas, ScreenRuler and so on.

Creating a Distribution Point

The first step is to create a new folder and setup a network share for it. This is called a Distribution Point and will
house the installation files and MSI package from which the software will be distributed. When creating this share
please bear in mind that if it is deleted any attempted installations thereafter may fail – so put it somewhere safe!

Every machine that will be installing the software must be able to get to the folder on the network, or it will not
work.

Copy the ClaroRead network edition files into the shared folder. You will need the MSI file (the main installer) but
also any folders and files with the MSI. These contain the actual program files.

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Creating a Group Policy Object

Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers

If you want to distribute the software to every user on your network right click your domain and click Properties. If
you want to distribute the software only to member of a specific group right click the group node and click
Properties.

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Click New then type a meaningful name for your Group Policy Object (GPO). Press enter, select the new GPO and
then click the Edit button. The Group Policy Object Editor will appear.

In the Group Policy Object Editor there is an entry called Software Installation under Computer Configuration >
Software Settings. Right click it, click New, and then click Package...

A file browser will appear. Type into it the UNC address of the ClaroRead MSI from the Distribution Point we created
earlier. It is very important that you do not use the file browser to locate the file as Windows will try and use the
local address to distribute the package instead of its proper network location.

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To find the UNC address you can navigate to the Distribution Point using My Network Places then copy the address
beginning with \\ from the address bar.

Click the OK button. You will then be asked to select if you want to Assign or Publish the package. Assigning the
software will cause it to install automatically when the user signs in whereas publishing the software will allow the
user to manually install the software via Add and Remove Programs.

Your package is now deployed. When a user logs in (or chooses to install if Published) then the software will be
installed on their machine.

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In some circumstances you may find that the package is not installed at user login. To fix this open the Group Policy
Object Editor and navigate to the ClaroRead Software Installation entry. Right click it then click Properties, go to
the Deployment tab then make sure Install this application at logon is checked and click OK.

Further Reading
For more information on distributing software using Group Policy please see Microsoft Knowledgebase article 816102

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Distributing ClaroRead over a network in
Windows Server 2008
This guide will show you how to deploy ClaroRead using Windows Server 2008 and Group Policy. This guide assumes
you are familiar with how to operate your Windows network, that you have already setup Windows Server 2008 and
have configured your users and groups in Active Directory.

We use Microsoft Windows Installer MSI files for all our installers so they work well with Windows networks and
they all install in a similar way. You can use this guide for ClaroIdeas, ScreenRuler and so on.

Setting up a share
The first step to distributing ClaroRead across a network is to provide a shared location from which clients can access
the ClaroRead setup files. If there is not already a shared folder set up for this purpose, then one can be created in
the following manner:

1. Create a folder in a suitable location with a suitable name

2. Right-click on the new folder and select Properties

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3. In the properties dialog select the 'Sharing' tab and then click on 'Advanced Sharing…'

4. Tick 'Share this folder' and then click on the 'Permissions' button

5. Add the 'Read' permission to users or groups that should be able to install ClaroRead

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6. 'OK' all of the dialogs and open the new folder in Windows Explorer

7. Create any further folders desired to make it easier to manage the file system

8. Copy all files from your installation zip to the new shared folder

Setting up the distribution script

Once the files are in a suitable shared location use the following steps to distribute them across the network:

1. Open up the 'Group Policy Management' window by going to 'Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Group Policy
Management'

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2. Expand 'Forest: [The Forest] > Domains > [The Domain]'. Right-click on 'Group Policy Objects' and select 'New'

3. Enter a suitable name for the new policy (e.g. ClaroRead Install Policy) and leave 'Source Starter GPO' as
'(none)'

4. Click on the new policy and then select the 'Settings' tab from the right-hand pane. In this tab are 2 configuration
headings: 'Computer Configuration' and 'User Configuration'. Right-click anywhere in the panel and select 'Edit…'

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5. Expand 'User Configuration > Policies > Software Settings', right-click on 'Software installation' and select 'New >
Package…'

6. Select the network location of the ClaroRead installation files

7. In the dialog that appears select 'Assigned' and click 'OK'

8. The selected installer will appear in the 'Software installation' panel. (This might take a couple of minutes to
happen)

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9. When the package does appear, double-click on it to open properties and then select the 'Deployment' tab.

10. Tick 'Install this application at logon' and select 'Basic' for the user interface. Click 'OK'

11. Close the 'Group Policy Management Editor' window and return to the 'Group Policy Management' window.
Right click on the domain name in the tree and select 'Link an Existing GPO…' from the drop-down.

12. Select the new policy from the list and click 'OK'

ClaroRead should now install on users' computers when they log in.

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Distributing ClaroRead over a network in
Windows Server 2012
This guide will show you how to deploy ClaroRead using Windows Server 2012. This guide assumes you are familiar
with how to operate your Windows network, that you have already setup Windows Server 2012 and have
configured your users and groups in Active Directory.

We use Microsoft Windows Installer MSI files for all our installers so they work well with Windows networks and
they all install in a similar way. You can use this guide for ClaroIdeas, ScreenRuler and so on.

Setting up a share
The first step to distributing ClaroRead across a network is to provide a shared location from which clients can access
the ClaroRead setup files. If there is not already a shared folder set up for this purpose, then one can be created in
the following manner:

1. Create a folder in a suitable location with a suitable name

2. Right-click on the new folder and select Properties

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3. In the properties dialog select the 'Sharing' tab and then click on 'Advanced Sharing…'

4. Tick 'Share this folder' and then click on the 'Permissions' button

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5. Add the 'Read' permission to users or groups that should be able to install ClaroRead

6. 'OK' all of the dialogs and open the new folder in Windows Explorer

7. Create any further folders desired to make it easier to manage the file system

8. Copy all files from your installation Zip to the new shared folder

Setting up the distribution script

Once the files are in a suitable shared location use the following steps to distribute them across the network:

1. Open up the 'Group Policy Management' window by going to 'Start Screen' and locating the Group Policy
Management icon.

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2. Expand 'Forest: [The Forest] > Domains > [The Domain]'. Right-click on 'Group Policy Objects' and select 'New'

3. Enter a suitable name for the new policy (e.g. ClaroRead Install Policy) and leave 'Source Starter GPO' as '(none)'

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4. Click on the new policy and then select the 'Settings' tab from the right-hand pane. In this tab are 2 configuration
headings: 'Computer Configuration' and 'User Configuration'. Right-click anywhere in the panel and select 'Edit…'

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5. Expand 'User Configuration > Policies > Software Settings', right-click on 'Software installation' and select 'New >
Package…'

6. Select the network location of the ClaroRead installation files

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7. In the dialog that appears select 'Assigned' and click 'OK'

8. The selected installer will appear in the 'Software installation' panel. (This might take a couple of minutes to
happen)

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9. When the package does appear, double-click on it to open properties and then select the 'Deployment' tab.

10. Tick 'Install this application at logon' and select 'Basic' for the user interface. Click 'OK'

11. Close the 'Group Policy Management Editor' window and return to the 'Group Policy Management' window.
Right click on the domain name in the tree and select 'Link an Existing GPO…' from the drop-down.

12. Select the new policy from the list and click 'OK'

ClaroRead should now install on users' computers when they log in.

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Installing for RemoteApp
RemoteApp is a feature in Windows 2008 which allows users to run an application on a remote server but see it as
though it were running on their own desktop. Claro products are able to work in this manner however some
problems can occur if the software needs to communicate with another piece of software but they aren't running on
the same machine. For instance, if ClaroRead was being run on a server and viewed through RemoteApp but
Microsoft Word was running on the client machine then the highlighting and reading features (as well as others)
would not be available because ClaroRead would not be able to communicate with Microsoft Word. If both pieces of
software were running on the server however then ClaroRead would work normally.

For information on how to install products for use by RemoteApp please see Installing Applications for Windows
Server 2008 Terminal Services and Configuring RemoteApps on Windows Server 2008.

For information on using RemoteApps from Windows XP clients please see Terminal Services RemoteApp (TS
RemoteApp).

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Installing ClaroRead using a batch script
You can have ClaroRead install on an end-user machine by using a batch script that runs when the user logs in.

Setting up a share
The first step to distributing ClaroRead using a batch script is to provide a shared location from which clients can
access the ClaroRead setup files. If there is not already a shared folder set up for this purpose, then one can be
created in the following manner:

1. Create a folder in a suitable location with a suitable name

2. Right-click on the new folder and select Properties

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3. In the properties dialog select the 'Sharing' tab and then click on 'Advanced Sharing…'

4. Tick 'Share this folder' and then click on the 'Permissions' button

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5. Add the 'Read' permission to users or groups that should be able to install ClaroRead

6. 'OK' all of the dialogs and open the new folder in Windows Explorer

7. Create any further folders desired to make it easier to manage the file system

8. Copy all files from the downloaded zip to the new shared folder

Creating the batch file

The next task is to create the batch file to install the software.

Create a new batch(.BAT) file in the shared folder. Into this file enter the required lines to install the software. For
example:
@echo off msiexec /i ClaroReadPlus55enus.msi
/passive msiexec /i msxml.msi /passive
msiexec /i msxml6.msi /passive
Setting the script to run at logon
Please see the following two articles for information on setting the script to run at logon:

• Setting up a Logon Script through Active Directory Users and Computers in Windows Server 2008

• Setting up a Logon Script through GPO in Windows Server 2008

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Prerequisites
Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Claro products are designed for currently-supported Windows releases. Older versions of Windows may not
work properly. You should update to the latest Service Pack for your system.

.NET Framework
Our products require the .NET 4 Client Framework, which is available as a system component for Windows 8
and later. Windows 7 and earlier will require installation of the Framework if not already done.

Visual Studio 2005 (VC++ 8.0) and Visual Studio 2010 (VC++ 10.0) Runtimes
ClaroRead 7.0 and later does not require any Visual Studio runtimes.
ClaroRead Plus and Pro versions 6.5 and earlier require the Visual Studio 2005 (C++ 8.0) and Visual Studio
2010 (C++ 10.0) runtimes.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2977003

Voices
Many of our products come with synthesized speech voices (e.g. “RealSpeak Daniel” or “Vocalizer Daniel”). These
are usually SAPI5 voices, installed by separate MSI windows installer files. Some voices (Vocalizer, and
ScanSoft/RealSpeak) are also available to other applications on the system, but some (Acapela) are not.

Generally, more voices are better, but because of their high quality some voices can be hundreds of MB in size, so
you may or may not want to install them all.

You should have received instructions on where to get your voice MSIs. If you install your other MSI files
over the network, you can simply install some or all of the voices MSI files in exactly the same way. This lets
you choose how many voices to install and how much space they should take up.

Combining MSI and CAB files

Here’s the problem, we ship our Windows Installers as MSIs (installers) plus CAB (data) files – the MSI is the installer
and the CAB files contain the actual files to be installed. We do this to save space on the target machine, since
Windows will keep a hidden copy of the MSI file when you install, and because Windows Installer does not support
Unicode for our international installers.

If you need to have a single MSI file, for example for MDM or InTune, then you can combine the MSI and CAB files
we provide. This can be done using the MSI Creator included in the Claro Support Toolkit. This is how:

1. Download the Claro Support Toolkit

from https://www.clarosoftware.com/help/help_files/ClaroSupportToolkit.zip.

2. Using either your own file archiver utility (such as winzip) or the built-in utility in Windows, extract the
Support Toolkit and you will find the MSI Creator in its own folder.

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 3. Run (double-click) the “Single MSI Creator.exe” file.

Using MSI Creator, you can select a folder that contains a combination of MSI and CAB files, select a product and
language that you wish to combine, provide the location of the combined file and simply click Create! MSI Creator
combines the files for you while you continue to work and alerts you when it completes.

Here is how to use MSI Creator:

1. With MSI Creator opened, you are presented with the welcome screen. Click Open Folder.

2. Select a folder that contains the Claro Software products that you wish to combine and press OK.

Note: MSI Creator will look in the selected folder for products to combine. MSI Creator will only look for MSIs that
belong to Claro Software, which follow a strict naming convention. Please ensure that any products you wish to
combine have the filenames they had when you acquired them. If they are named differently, MSI Creator will ignore
them as these could be installers for non-Claro Software products.

3. If MSI Creator is able to find any products, these will be listed in the main window. Both AUTH and NET
versions of products will be displayed.

4. Select the product you wish to combine and press “Select Product”.

Note: If at any time you believe you have made a mistake or wish to change a selection, simply press the back button
and you can change your selection.

5. All languages available for that product will now be displayed. Select the language of the product you wish to
combine and press “Select Language”. This selects a specific MSI from the folder based on the chosen
product and language.

6. You will now be presented with the final page of MSI Creator. Click “Create MSI”. You can now choose the
location to save the combined MSI file. By default this is the same location as the original MSI, without the “-
X” at the end of the filename.

7. Select the filename and location and click “Save”.

Note: The CAB file that an MSI is linked to is stored internally within the MSI. Ensure this has the same name as it did
when you acquired it. If it has been renamed or is not in the same folder, MSI Creator will not be able to find it and
will alert you to this situation.

8. The main window will now say “Processing, Please Wait…” while MSI Creator combines the MSI file with its
respective CAB file in the background. For smaller MSI/CAB files, this will be a quick operation. For larger
combinations, such as ClaroRead, this will take some time to perform.

9. Upon completion, an alert will appear, informing you that the combining has completed and the location of
the saved combined MSI. Press OK and MSI Creator closes. To combine more MSI/CABs, run MSI Creator
again and follow this same procedure.

You should now find that the combined MSI is larger in size than its original counterpart. You can now deploy this
MSI as required and delete the original MSI and CAB files. The newly created MSI file will keep the digital signature
of the original MSI file and installation of this MSI will perform exactly the same as the original MSI, any differences
happen internally within Windows Installer.
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How to do it manually

If you wish to do this manually without the use of MSI Creator, it is possible, this is how:

1. Download the MSI file and the CAB to the same folder.

2. Create a folder called “a”.

3. Do an administrative install. Go to the command line and enter (on one line):
msiexec /a "PATH_OF_MSI" TARGETDIR="PATH_OF_FOLDER_A" /passiveFor example:
msiexec /a "C:\Users\Alasdair\Desktop\ClaroReadPlus-en_gb-7.3.3-net-X.msi"
TARGETDIR="C:\Users\Alasdair\Desktop\a" /passive
You will find an (altered) copy of the MSI in the “a” folder along with new folders containing all the files in
the installation.

Note: TARGETDIR is case-sensitive and we find it much easier to use complete paths for simplicity.

4. You need a file from Microsoft called wimakcab.vbs. You can find it in the Windows SDK, but to save you
time: Download wimakcab.vbs.

5. On your commandline enter (one one line):

cscript PATH_OF_WIMAKCAB.VBS PATH_OF_NEW_MSI newcab.cab /C /U /E
For example:
cscript "C:\Users\Alasdair\Desktop\wimakcab.vbs" "C:\Users\Alasdair\Desktop\a\ClaroReadPlus-en_gb-
7.3.3-net-X.msi" newcab.cab /C /U /E

You should now find that your MSI in the “a” folder has increased in size as all the files have been embedded in it.
You can now deploy this MSI file as required, and delete the downloaded MSI, CAB, and folders you have created.

Note that the MSI file will no longer be digitally-signed (as it has been altered since we signed it) but this should not
affect your deployment.

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