Installing Vista Games via CMD Line
By default when you install Vista Business, it does not install the built in games (Chess Titans, Freecell, Hearts, Inkball, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purble Place, Solitaire, and Spider Solitaire). Many businesses like it that way and want to keep it that way. I don’t. If someone has a laptop and they want to play Chess or Solitaire at home…I don’t care…knock yourself out. What I don’t want is someone coming to me complaining that the games aren’t there. I want the games to be part of our default install. (Other admins can argue that point if they wish…that’s the decision I made for my environment.)
So…with my default install being completely driven by SCCM Task Sequences…I need to find a way to put that in a task sequence. In a Task Sequence, I need to be able to do this with a “Run Command Line” task. So…what is that command line?
First..it’s not easy to locate. I hunted way to long for this bit of info. I found other cryptic webpages about similar items, but nothing specifically addressing this one…imagine that…not many people want to install Vista’s games via the command line…who woulda thunk it? I finally figured it out through a bit of trial and error. That magic command line is:
pkgmgr.exe /iu:InboxGames /quiet
Note: “InboxGames” is case sensitive.
[Note: I have also found another command line for this: “ocsetup.exe InboxGames /quiet”. ]
What I would really like at this point is to have a command line way of uninstalling “Purble Place”. While I don’t mind if our staff play chess, solitaire, etc…I really don’t want them letting their kids play Purble Place on their work laptop. Anyone know how to do this?
Also…the way to point and click to do this is by opening up “Programs and Features” from the Control Panel, then clicking on “Turn Windows features on or off”, then checking the Games checkbox.
Beach Ball Freeze Tag
Recently we were visiting Julie’s grandparents. My daughters and I were playing on their really large back porch. It started with me just throwing a beach ball at them. It ended up being a game of freeze tag. I was always “it”, and the way to freeze them was by hitting them with the beach ball. Because of the nature of the beach ball…it doesn’t matter how hard it is thrown, it’s not going to hurt anyone. They loved it…and it was a very easy way for me to keep them entertained for a long time.
Today, we had two neighbor kids over at the house. I took the four of them out to the back yard and started up a game of Beach Ball Freeze Tag. Again, I was “it”. I had two beach balls this time. It’s a lot more challenging in a larger environment. The beach ball will only travel just so far before losing all of its velocity and being easy to dodge. I also instituted a new rule…if I threw and missed, then any of them could pick up the thrown ball and be a second “it”. To keep them from fighting over the ball, whoever touches the ball first is “it”, and if someone touches it second, then they are immediately frozen. Also…the two people who are “it” can attempt to freeze each other.
The challenge for the person who is “it” is to freeze all of the kids at the same time. The challenge for the kids is to learn to not clump together. It’s a lot more challenging and fun when they stay separated…makes the person who is “it” have to work harder.
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The Realm of the Verbal Processor 