Dynamic unattended install

[tallseabird]

Any tips on how to create an unattended installation disc but have application on the hard drive in a selected folder and just install something like

d:\install\avg\*.*

So that I am not bound by the contents of the CD and can just download a newer version of the software for next time???

Adding a dynamic config file would be good as well???

Thanks

[pthomas]

Well, you've hit something that I think all of us would like to do...

How about this for an idea:

1) Setup a folder share that everyone has access too including anonymous access. Let that be your so-called "d:\install\avg\*.*" folder. Maybe just call it "progs"

So now we have a folder on a server (let's call it download) that has a "progs" share:

\\download\progs

2) Put your programs in this share and in the base of that folder is your install batch file (install.bat). Think of this as the $OEM%\$1\applications\install folder, its just on the network.

You'll still need an $OEM$ folder with cmdlines.txt and have the RunOnceEx.cmd file be ran from there. The only purpose of that is to copy apps off of the network share. I'd recommend them being copied off right before logon because hopefully network drivers should be installed and everything working at this point...

3) Have the RunOnceEx.cmd file simply A) copy the contents off of the network share into your %systemdrive%\install\ folder. Then after everything is done copying, B) execute the batch file (install.bat) and finally C) run the "shutdown -r -t 0" command to reboot the PC once more.

The install.bat file will do what we normally do for installing programs during the logon part by putting the install stuff in the HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->RunOnceEx location in the registry. You could copy the contents of your original RunOnceEx.cmd files to the install.bat file as a starting point If you already have one from an original unattended CD.

Now you essentially have the same thing as an unattended install that copies stuff off a CD. Only in this case we are copying it off of a network share so that all we have to do is update the programs and the install.bat file on the share and we don;t need to keep modifying a windows CD. This would be much easier to make changes to and keep updated versions of software.

I think that's about as dynamic as you can get.

Hope my idea made sense,

Paul