How to make a 7-Zip Switchless Installer

[leadboots5]

Thank you so much Martin. I think some of that should maybe be incorporated into the first post. I now have a silent installing WinRAR.

[Martin H]

You are very welcome, my friend

CU, Martin.

[mr.Ghost]

Ghost's SFX-GUI for creating 7-zip SFX setups - Update 1.5

*Added Drag and drop

**Fixed some bugs

This is a GUI for creating Automated SFX - Archives with setup command! You can visit my website to download it. You can find it in URL REMOVED >> My Shared Downloads<<!

URL's REMOVED - YOU CANNOT LINK TO SITES THAT LEAD TO WAREZ

v1.4 7zs_sfx.exe.exe

Edited May 28, 2007 by Shark007
removed URL's - edit post accordingly

[ozzy]

I'm a little confused. well thats because i'm totaly new in creating unattended windows cd's. I read keytotime's guide about how to create swichless installer (don't even know what that is), and didn't really understood what to do. could someone please help with a little more detailed version about how to create switchless installer??

[Arie]

I'm a little confused. well thats because i'm totaly new in creating unattended windows cd's. I read keytotime's guide about how to create swichless installer (don't even know what that is), and didn't really understood what to do. could someone please help with a little more detailed version about how to create switchless installer??

Why would you want to make a switchless installer, if you don't even know what it is?

Creating an unattended installation disc does not require you to make any installers for other software, unless you want to include those in your whole installation process. May I suggest simply creating an unattended installation disc first, before looking into installing any other software unattendedly via silent, switchless installers? Once you have created an unattended installation disc which installs to your liking, you can always still add other software to your installation process. The tutorials posted on this forum, on the main web site and on RyanVM's forum are all very clear. Perhaps once you know how to create an unattended installation disc, these tutorials will be more clear to you.

[Inferi0r]

Keytime's guide is a little old. Take a look at my new tutorial here. If you want help: just ask.

[ozzy]

could someone tell me what the -ms inline option does??

[piyasa_sager]

excuse me guyes ... i have a problem .. i make 7zip files according the procedure define earlier ..than make it cab file .. but as the windows in last stage there is a msg "7.zip The System Cannot fine the file" can any one help me ?

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Post your config.txt file you used.

[piyasa_sager]

Post your config.txt file you used.

here is the for silent install and after making exe file of silent install i used this procedure

ADDON METHOD

Copy and paste [between the lines] into Notepad

__________________

[general]

builddate=2006/11/25

description=

language=

title=

version=

website=

[EditFile]

I386\SVCPACK.INF,SetupHotfixesToRun,AddProgram

[AddProgram]

example.exe

____________________

Change example.exe with the actual switch-less installer name you are using

Save this file as Entries_exampleAddon.ini

Put the emample.exe into a folder named SVCPACK

use rar or 7zip to package the ini file and the svcpack folder together with the same name as the ini file

but nlite is not accepting the file for nero i dont know why i do same procedure for msn, itunes and winamp.. successfully added to my xp cd .. but in case of nero the error is as follows

Unsupported File

K:\Nero.7z

can't able to understand..

one thing i want to confirum my procedure .. for making silent install 1st i have to install the main exe file into a folder .. then zip it using 7zip. in ultra mode, and put it into a folder.. after it i have to copy a file named as 7zS.sfx and then write the config file as i upload it .. after it i used this command

copy /b 7zs.sfx + config.txt + (whatever the archive name).7z (Installer_Name).exe

and one exe file is created that is silent instell

kindly tell me is that procedure is right ? plz mention here my mistakes ..

config.7z

[Kelsenellenelvian]

You have your config file named config.TEXT!!! You need it to read config.txt...

Also you don't put the main files into a folder and the 7z that folder you just 7z all of the files like example2

Then you will be left with 3 files like in example 1

Edited April 12, 2008 by Kelsenellenelvian

[cool400]

Hi,

this is a really cool thread - but all the information blew my mind away

I've got some questions that are nearly unsolvable for me as a noob, but maybe not for you guys

1) I want to add files and the regarding subfolders to a 7z-archive, that are themselves contained in the subfolder "av8" - but without including this folder-prefix in the archive, meaning I want the archived files and folders to be in the root of the archive. This is my command:

7z a -t7z av8.7z -mx=9 av8\

How can I achieve that the files and subfolders are in the archive-root?

2) I want to make a silent(!) SFX-archive from this 7z-archive. ATM I'm doing this with WinRAR and the SFX-command

Path=%windir%\Temp\Avira
SavePath
Setup=hide.exe "%windir%\Temp\Avira\setup.cmd"
Silent=1
Overwrite=1

so that all files are unextracted to %windir%\Temp\Avira and after that the setup.cmd is called! This is my command:

copy /b 7zS.sfx + config.txt + av8.7z Avira_Antivir_8_Free_Silent.exe

and this is the config.txt:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
RunProgram="hide.exe ""setup.cmd"""
;!@InstallEnd@!

Note that the command hide.exe needs the parameter "setup.cmd" in quotes (hide.exe is an AutoIt-file that hides the CMD-window).

Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

Best regards and thanks a lot in advance!!!

cool400

[ricktendo]

cool400 use the new 7zip method its much better, you can use multipple RunPrograms and it also has a built in hide CMD window

Here is an example on how to install a program and then copy the updated files after its installed

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
RunProgram="ir32_257_26021.exe /S"
RunProgram="hidcon:cmd /c tskill Ir"
RunProgram="hidcon:cmd /c copy /v /y Irremote.ini %WinDir%"
GUIMode="2"
;!@InstallEnd@!

Here is my 7-zip (the program) I reshack the icons after install to have a Vista look

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
RunProgram="7z457.exe /S"
RunProgram="ResHacker -addoverwrite \"%ProgramFiles%\\7-Zip\\7z.dll\", \"%ProgramFiles%\\7-Zip\\7z.dll\", \"%%T\\7z.dll.res\",,,"
GUIMode="2"
;!@InstallEnd@!

You can do tons of new things, here is a updated tutorial

Also look at this help file, it has tons of examples on how to Reg Add, XCopy, Reg Del and lots of other things

http://7zsfx.solta.ru/en/examples.html

Edited April 19, 2008 by ricktendo64

[Martin H]

1) I want to add files and the regarding subfolders to a 7z-archive, that are themselves contained in the subfolder "av8" - but without including this folder-prefix in the archive, meaning I want the archived files and folders to be in the root of the archive. This is my command:

7z a -t7z av8.7z -mx=9 av8\

How can I achieve that the files and subfolders are in the archive-root?

First, i would just like to say that ricktendo64's advice about switching to Oleg Sch's modded 7z SFX module is very, very good advice indeed

Second, then to answer your actual question, then you need to add the full path and a '*' to get 7-Zip to exclude the folder and only compress the files. 7-Zip's command-line interface is alittle different than standard Win32 CMD syntax, so '*.*' for 7-Zip, only reffers to files with an extension, whereas '*' is any file with and without an extension. Lastly, then the parameter '-t7z' is redundant, as it is the default used format. So, to recap, the complete command-line would be :

7z a -mx=9 av8.7z <path>\av8\*

[cool400]

Thanks to both of you for your help!!! I really appreciate this

As I'm really willing to find things out myself I hate it to ask such questions - but I think I'm stuck again

I followed Rick's advice and read tons of information about the modified 7-Zip SFX-module. I think I made a big step into the right direction, but it seems I'm missing something!

First I found out that the 7za.exe is not able to unzip EXE-files, especially the Avira Antivir Setup-EXE 7z.exe is able to do this - but what is the difference between these both files? I think I read the the 7za.exe contains the librarys and 7z.exe not - do I need any further files when using the 7z.exe? Are there any disadvantages?

I slightly modified the create.cmd this way:

cd av8
..\7z a -mx=9 "..\av8.7z" *
cd ..
copy /b 7zsd.sfx + config.txt + av8.7z Avira_Antivir_8_Free_Silent.exe
del av8.7z

Then I built a config.txt:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
InstallPath="C:\\Windows\\Temp\\Avira"
RunProgram="basic\\setup.exe /inf=\"setup.inf\""
RunProgram="hidcon:cmd /c tskill avscan"
GUIMode="2"
;!@InstallEnd@!

The folder-structure looks like this:

[root]
7z.exe
7zsd.sfx
config.txt
-- [av8]
	{files}
	.
	.
	.
	setup.inf
	-- [basic]
		{files}
		.
		.
		.
		setup.exe

When I open the Avira_Antivir_8_Free_Silent.exe first it seems that all went well, but when I take a look into the Antivir-logfile it say that the setup.inf has errors

This is really strange, because with exactly the same setup.inf it's no problem when using the WinRAR-SFX-methode!

This is my WinRAR-SFX-comment:

;Der folgende Kommentar enthält SFX-Skriptbefehle

Path=%windir%\Temp\Avira
SavePath
Setup=hide.exe "%windir%\Temp\Avira\setup.cmd"
Silent=1
Overwrite=1

After extracing the WinRAR-SFX to C:\Windows\Temp\Avira I call this command in the setup.cmd:

start /wait %windir%\Temp\Avira\basic\setup.exe /inf="%windir%\Temp\Avira\setup.inf"

...and it works - like I said with exactly the same INF-file!

Do you know what I did wrong with the 7-Zip-SFX-method that it not works like the WinRAR does?

Further I had a batch-file that automatically replaced the SFX-icon with a custom one:

reshacker.exe -addoverwrite Avira_Antivir_8_Free_Silent.exe, Avira_Antivir_8_Free_Silent.exe, av8.ico, icongroup,101,1033

But it seems that this destroys my SFX-file! Do you know why? I tried to manually replace the icon, but maybe I need another icon-file (format?).

Best regards and thanks a lot!

cool400