I have tried every method mentioned on this forum with absolutely no success.

I am trying to install the retail package of Adobe Illustrator CS2. I am trying to make a silent install which requires no user input and no scripts either. I can not use an unattended install using a script.

I have tried the following:

Running setup.exe /r for the setup file on the CD to produce a setup.iss file. No setup.iss file is produced anywhere on the system.

I tried copying the contents of the Adobe Illustrator CS2 directory to the hard drive and running Setup.exe /r to create an setup.iss file. No setup.iss file is produced anywhere on the system.

I tried running msiexec.exe /i "Adobe Illustrator CS2.msi" /qn INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Adobe" USERNAME="Bob Smith" SERIALNUMBER=1034-10XX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX /L*v mylog.txt

The log says 1034-10XX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX error and appears to have a number 3 error value.

I tried running msiexec.exe /i "Adobe Illustrator CS2.msi" /qn INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Adobe" USERNAME="Bob Smith" SERIALNUMBER=103410XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX /L*v mylog.txt

The log says 1034-10XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX error and appears to have a number 3 error value.

I tried entering the username, serial number and install dir into the abcpy.ini file and running Setup. It either just starts Setup normally and waits for user input or fails to run. I tried running msiexec after setting abcpy.ini and it also fails to install.

WTH?

I ended up using AutoIt on this one...

I saw that, but that's not a silent install then.

It really isn't clear whether anybody is able to get these to install silently, including Photoshop.

Well Photoshop is not really a big problem, that's completly silent with switches if you mod the installer not to show the activation thingy during install.

As for AutoIt, I dont really see why people don't want to use it. You can have Illustrator install almost completly silent using AutoIt. Just use the function to hide/minimize windows.

The .xml file never worked for me with CS2 so I did a whole AutoIt script, including timed GUI (60 seconds then autoinstall). There is a little trick in AutoIt that let's you enable disabled buttons, in my installer I just re-enable the grayed out "Remind me later" button and then use it. I could post it for you, but you will probably have to do some modifications.

Please read Run a silent installation of Illustrator from Adobe.com.