Unattended Installation for Windows

 

 

In addition to installing through the Graphical User Interface, it is possible to install from the command line. In particular, you can specify all installations options from the command line. This type of installation is particularly practical for network deployments, as the command can be launched without an operator in front of the computer.

Available Options

Option Usage
/SP- Disables the This will install... Do you wish to continue? prompt at the beginning of Setup.
/SILENT Prevents the apparition of the background windows
/VERYSILENT In addition to /SILENT, don't ask for 'Reboot now' question (restart automatically unless /NORESTART is used)
/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES

Ignored unless /SILENT or /VERYSILENT is used.

The default response in situations where there's a choice is:
-Yes in a 'Keep newer file?' situation.
-No in a 'File exists, confirm overwrite.' situation. 
-Abort in Abort/Retry situations.
-Cancel in Retry/Cancel situations.
-Yes (=continue) in a DiskSpaceWarning/DirExists/DirDoesntExist/NoUninstallWarning/ExitSetupMessage/ConfirmUninstall situation.
-Yes (=restart) in a FinishedRestartMessage/UninstalledAndNeedsRestart situation.

5 message boxes are not suppressible:
-The About Setup message box.
-The Exit Setup? message box.
-The FileNotInDir2 message box displayed when Setup requires a new disk to be inserted and the disk was not found.
-Any (error) message box displayed before Setup (or Uninstall) could read the command line parameters.
-Any message box displayed by [Code] support function MsgBox.
/NORESTART Instructs Setup not to reboot even if it's necessary.

/RESTARTEXITCODE=[exit code]

 Used in combination with /NORESTART, the Setup will return this code if a restart would be necessary
/LANG=[language] Instructs Setup to use this language
/NOICONS Instructs Setup to initially check the Don't create any icons check box on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page.
/DIR="x:\dirname" Asks installation in the given directory
/MERGETASKS="!removedtask,addedtask"

Ellié Computing Merge has currently these optional components:

  • desktopicon
  • quicklaunchicon
  • ShellExtension

You can specify whether forcing their installation by specifying them as in: /MERGETASKS="desktopicon,shellextension" or specify that they are not installed by using e.g.: /MERGETASKS="!quicklaunchicon".
/LOADINF="path" Instructs Setup to load the settings from the specified file after having checked the command line. This file can be prepared using the '/SAVEINF=' command as explained below.
/SAVEINF="path" Instructs Setup to save installation settings to the specified file. 


Note: the installer used for this version of Ellié Computing Merge is Inno Setup. You can refer Inno Setup help if you need more information. Also, the above table content is copyrighted from Inno Setup copyright owners, and was somewhat modified to match Ellié Computing Merge installation purposes.

Sample 1

Installing the full Ellié Computing Merge, in the default directory can be done this way:

ecmerge.win32.exe /SP- /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /LANG=EN /MERGETASKS="desktopicon,quicklaunchicon,shellextension"

Sample 2

Install first with the graphical user interface, launched in this way:

ecmerge.win32.exe /SAVEINF="c:\temp\ecmerge-install-params.inf"

Then on other machines which share the same configuration:

ecmerge.win32.exe /SP- /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /LOADINF="c:\temp\ecmerge-install-params.inf"