daisy pictureDaisy
a intelligent auto-hotfix utility for Windows 2000
by Marc DeBonis
Version 1.5
What is Daisy?

It is a program that reviews your system for service pack and os level, determining what hotfixes the base os needs, and downloading and installing them in a correct and consistent manner.  It checks that the hotfixes installed on the system are installed correctly.

What are the requirements to run Daisy?
  1. You must be logged in as a user with Administrative rights to the system.
  2. The system must be running a flavor of English version of Windows 2000
  3. The system must have internet connectivity (specifically, FTP)
  4. The messenger service must be started
  5. The daisy.ini file must be in the same directory as the daisy.exe
What will Daisy do?

It will patch a base OS (the operating system installed without ANY additional, optional components).  I.E., by default, IIS 5.0 is installed if you install Windows 2000 server.  Daisy does not look for patches for IIS, nor any optional component that can be choosen not to be installed (the exception to this is the Terminal Services component in remote administration mode).  It will check that all hotfixes installed are installed correctly and the files are in the right place and not damaged.

What can Daisy not do?

It can't fix security or system problems not related to hotfixes.  It will not download Service Packs.  It will not butter your bread.

How do I install and run Daisy?

Download load it via a web browser from this link.  Save it to a folder (not the desktop) on a disk with plenty of space.  Unzip it and run it from that folder.  Several files will be extracted and folders will be created.  Wait for it to finish (it might take quite a while).  If it tells you that hotfixes where installed then you need to reboot.  Reboot then run daisy again.

How do I know what Daisy did?

Check the output.txt file in the directory you ran Daisy from.  That has all kinds of good information in it.  Do not attempt to access the file while Daisy is still running.

How does Daisy work?

Ancient chinese secret.  It actually ftps the hotfix database file (hfdb.ini) from the hfdb ftp server.  Daisy uses this file to determine what hotfixes are needed for what version of the os and at what service pack level.  Then Daisy will download, prioritize and install all hotfixes needed.  It will also write to the application event logs what it has done. If it has installed new hotfixes, it will use the messenger service to notify the local user that they need to reboot.

What is the hotfix database file?

The database file is downloaded every time Daisy is run.  The hotfix database file is updated (by the Daisy maintainer, by hand) if new base os hotfixes come out on Microsoft's site.  Daisy uses this file to figure out what hotfixes are needed.  Somebody MUST maintain this file for your site!

Are there any command line options for Daisy?

  1. "-r " will tell Daisy to force (and I mean force) a reboot of the local system if new hotfixes were installed.
  2. "-s " will make Daisy silent, no interactivity. (not the default anymore!)
  3. "-l " will make Daisy make a copy of the output.txt to YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.log
  4. "-h " will make Daisy hide the running application window in the taskbar
Suggestions for use

   I suggest you use the built in W2K Task Scheduler to run Daisy once a week or so.  With the reboot option, you can have the system hotfix itself and keep the system up to date.  Help the system stay, "Freshas a daisy"...

Are there any known issues (bugs) with Daisy?

Issue 1 - After installing hotfixes, Daisy's output.txt notes that the hotfixes weren't installed correctly. 
   Not a bug, you need to reboot and re-run daisy to verify the hotfixes are installed correctly.

Issue 2 - Daisy runs, then just seems to sit there.  I have waited for hours.
   Check that you have persistant internet connectivity in order to download hotfixes.
   End task Daisy and check the output.txt file for problems

Issue 3 - Daisy says I'm not the administrator of the sytem, but I am!
  Daisy assumes you are on a English W2K system and is checking that the logged in user is a member of the 'Administrators' local group.
  That local group will be named something different in different language versions of W2K.
  Create a local group called Administrators and add the logged in account as a member.

Issue 4 - Daisy says I'm not the administrator of the system, but I am, and I'm on the english version of W2K!
  Daisy currently doesn't understand group redirection very well. It just looks at the local groups of the logged in user.
  If that user is a member of a global group which itself is a member of the local administrator group, Daisy gets confused.
  I'll fix this as time allows. To get Daisy to run, add the logged in user account to the local Administrators group for now.

Issue 5 - Daisy dies saying it can't FTP the hfdb.ini.
  Daisy uses the same proxy settings as defined in IE. Insure that you can ftp to a site with IE.
  If you can't, you'll need to modify the proxy settings within IE to allow Daisy to ftp correctly.

Issue ? - I don't know any other outstanding issues

How can I contact the author with a question, comment or suggestion?

Email me at marc.debonis@vt.edu. 
I will try to respond to your email in a timely manner.

Disclaimer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

For more information concerning the GPL, see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

This program is written in the Winbatch coding language
See http://www.windowware.com for more information

This program includes the following Microsoft utilities
qchain.exe - see MS KB article, Q296861
qfecheck.exe - see MS KB article, Q282784