Uninstall Visio 2013 with SCCM

As I'm sure all of you have found there are lots of helpful articles out there about how to do a silent install of Microsoft Office/Project/Visio/etc through SCCM, but there is very little information out there on how to do an un-install silently. After much head scratching I finally found the method of doing so...

1. Navigate to the directory where your install files are located
2. Edit the config.xml file located within vispro.ww (note this changes depending on the version of Visio)
3. Remove the values from the Display level line and change it to look like below

4. Within your SCCM deployment modify the Uninstall file to read:
setup.exe /uninstall vispro /config vispro.ww/config.xml (again note the visio version name will differ depending on the edition)

5. Click OK and test the uninstallation via SCCM software centre

Running Configuration Manager 2012 Remote Control standalone

In some instances you might not want to roll out the full SCCM console but still allow the user to run the Remote Control SCCM tool.

Here is how to do it:

1. Find the directory where the AdminConsole is installed, example: C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386, copy the following directory and files:
0000049
CmRcViewer.exe
RdpCoreSccm.dll

2. Copy the whole directory and the files to the computer you want to run Remote Control from. You can create a folder anywhere on the computer, i.e My Documents\Remote Control

3. Then simply launch the CmRcViewer.exe file and that is you!

Changing Startup to Automatic on the SCCM Remote Control Service

One of the biggest bugbears within the support staff is that the Configuration Manager 2012 Remote Tools client service is set to Automatic (Delayed Start) when installed as default.

If you are working on a users machine and you have to restart it, it can often feel like an age before you can remote control the machine again.

Using Group Policy and a Group Policy Preference Settings you can change this. Under Services add the SCCM Remote Control Service and change the startup type to “Automatic”.