S 4.109 Software reinstallation on workstations

Initiation responsibility: Head of IT Section, IT Security Management

Implementation responsibility: Administrator

Problems with the operating system or the applications which can only be resolved through user support occur relatively frequently on workstations. These can be caused, for example, by software errors, configuration changes, installation of new software or computer viruses.

To avoid administrators having to spend a lot of time troubleshooting on workstations in connection with the problems described above, a software reinstallation of the standard configuration should be performed.

First of all the computer must be uniquely identified. Starting from this identification, it is then necessary using appropriate documentation or a program to establish precisely what software is installed in what configuration on this computer. It is helpful here if the IT systems are very similar, at least in areas with similar assigned tasks.

It is recommended that the workstation hard disk is re-formatted and the required software and data is then reinstalled.

A software reinstallation can be performed in various ways. For example, there are special programs which will export a predefined configuration from a server onto the workstations which are to be reinstalled. It should be noted that this kind of work is generally doubly time-critical: on the one hand it is desirable that reconfiguration is effected as quickly as possible so as to make the IT system available once more, while on the other hand the network loading must be minimised. This is especially important in the case of training computers or PC pools.

It is of course also possible to perform the reinstallation "manually". To do this, a standard installation should be performed first of all. The special features of the individual computers, such as special device drivers, additional configuration files or special software, are then copied. However, this requires that these are available preconfigured, e.g. on the network or on mobile data media. An up-to-date anti-virus program must then be run.