We have seen a number of deployments hang on Windows Vista systems when deployed via PDQ Deploy Pro. An example is Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Release 6. The same PDQ Deploy Installer will deploy successfully on XP and Windows 7 targets. The problem appears to be with how Vista allows a service account to run certain applications. The workaround that we have used is to set deployments to use the Local System account. In PDQ Deploy Pro 1.4 and up to 1.5 beta 3 this setting is global to all installers. We are planning on making this setting available PER installer in the released version of 1.5.

To globally select installers to use the Local System account go to Preferences and select Credentials. Check the box called Run Installers as Local System. 

There is a caveat to using this method. If your installer has to reference a remote file share DURING the installation then this setting will most likely cause the deployment to fail. This is because the Local System does not, by default, have permissions to access remote file shares. This feature is enabled by allowing Delegation in Active Directory.

An example where Local System would fail (unless delegation is enabled) is Mozilla Firefox. If you deploy Firefox and have your INI file (containing the silent install options) on a remote share you will most likely get a File Doesn't Exist error. The image below shows an installer that would fail (because a remote source is needed during the install)