Best way to make unattended app. install

[zucchetto]

Hi Everybody and thanks, this is very usefull forum.

I'm newbie in this section and blushing to ask, but how can I easily make unattended install i.e from Nero burning rom. I know, this forum is full of this, but "if you don't know alphabet you can't read"

I already made unattended windows install included SP2 + hotfixes + few add ons from RyanVM with nLite CR5. Everything went great when installing. So I put some own add ons, like Nero. But of course It wasn't working. I meen I had to click NEXT at least five times:) and because some else application I made the whole install session stopped.

So I really like to learn but where to put "switches"(like if I have SVCPACK + ENTRIES_nero.INI) what and where is batch file (all I know it's .bat file and can be modify with notepad), RunOnceEx...ööö,huh

OK, I can read and I've been reading, this is great forum but I have found only this http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ great guide. But I'm asking if somebody has a little time to tell me exactly what to do that my windows install also unattended some other program.

Please don't be mad on me. I hope somebody understand what I'm lack.

Edited January 11, 2006 by zucchetto

[No6]

This may help.

Start /wait Nero\setup.exe /SFX /SILENT /NOCANCEL /NOREBOOT /WRITE_SN /SN=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx

[zucchetto]

Start /wait Nero\setup.exe /SFX /SILENT /NOCANCEL /NOREBOOT /WRITE_SN /SN=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx

OK, thanks. Should I copy and paste that in notepad and save .bat in same folder with setup.exe C:\XPCD\$OEM$\$1$\Install\Nero

Or can I put that somewhere (where?) in .INI file?

Edited January 11, 2006 by zucchetto

[sleepydvdr]

Please don't be mad on me. I hope somebody understand what I'm lack.

I'm in the same boat. I have been playing with this stuff for about 2 weeks now. People get mad if you ask redundant questions. Overall, the guides are good, but don't explain some things very well. Some crutical guides are even missing! I have the same question as you. What do we do with that line of code? I have seen it before. I have seen the explanation of what each switch means. One guide was using a program called 7zip and I think I was supposed to insert the code in there somewhere, but I saw no place to put it. And if it goes with the RunOnce command, do we copy Nero to the CDROM and point to it? How would we compensate for different computers having different drive letters?

I wish someone would write an even more detailed guides. I also suspect these guides were made with versions of programs that have since been updated and maybe work differently now. That may be why so many people are lost. Being so good at so many things on computers makes it hard for me to be a newbie at this.

[No6]

Start /wait Nero\setup.exe /SFX /SILENT /NOCANCEL /NOREBOOT /WRITE_SN /SN=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx

OK, thanks. Should I copy and paste that in notepad and save .bat in same folder with setup.exe C:\XPCD\$OEM$\$1$\Install\Nero

Or can I put that somewhere (where?) in .INI file?

You can either make a batch file with that command or incorporate it into an existing batch file. Just adjust the Nero\setup.exe path accordingly.

Post back if you need to.

[atomizer]

to add to the confusion...

this may help you... or not...

http://www.hiddensoft.com/AutoIt/

i've never used it, but a lot of people seem to like it.

[No6]

Please don't be mad on me. I hope somebody understand what I'm lack.

I'm in the same boat. I have been playing with this stuff for about 2 weeks now. People get mad if you ask redundant questions.

We are all eager to make things work at first try, but that's like trying to drive a car without learning how to first. I know that you don't want to hear this, but you cannot hope to make things work right, the first time. You need to experiment A LOT to understand the workings of Windows setup first.

I've started learning about unattendent installations about a year ago. I didn't make my first CD for about three months after that, and after a year, I still find and learn new things. Don't rush things. One week is not enough to learn. I have spend way much more time learning to do this than I hope to save using the finished disk, but for me it's the journey that matters.

The guides are not there to teach everyone to complete a project, because everyone has a different level of understanding. Instead, they outline the procedure and the people are expected to experiment on their own to discover some of the basic stuff. The guide gives you the big steps but you're expected to learn the little steps yourself. That's where the forum boards are a big help. Whatever your question might be, it has been asked before. A little investigating will answer your question AND teach you other things that will become useful eventually.

Don't get discouraged. It'll take some effort, but when you make your first CD it will all seem worth it. Good luck, and feel free to ask for help when you cannot find the answers yourself.

[Nologic]

Hehe form the title for this thread your asking a really large question...and a very hard one to answer.

The most professional way would be to deploy using xplode, with custom made silent installers...that is if its a certain set of applications that will be rolled out on all systems involved. (full unattended)

If its not the same set of applications for each system then probably deploying with WPI...with again custom silent installers. (semi unattended)

The really involved way would be to deploy with AutoIt or WSH to read MAC address's and deploy app's based on those address's, using custom silent installers. (fully unattended)

Problem with the above is that it would be hard to maintain up to date versions of software because of making custom installers. How ever the looks of the installation would be clean as well as the final product since every thing would be arranged as one wants...so menu's and directorys don't look like a huge cluster f***.

If you only care about how the installation looks, and want easy to update software versions...then the following is suggested.

xplode with stock installers, using silent switchs with in xplod. (full unattended)

WPI with stock installers, using AutoIt to pass silent switchs to the installers. (semi unattended)

If you don't care about the looks of the installation..but care about how the end product works...and want to maintain up to date software.

AutoIt software automation installations...looks like hell, but every thing will be just where you want it, how you want it...its just a matter of how much scripting you want to do is all. Deployed with ether xplode or RunOnce. (full unattended) or with WPI (semi unattended)

If all you care about is getting the **** thing done, and want up to date software.

AutoIt passing switch's to stock installers via xplode or RunOnce. (full unattended)

Batch scripts via xplode or RunOnce. (full unattended)

If software is different per system then:

AutoIt passing switch's to stock installers via WPI. (semi unattended)

Batch scripts via WPI. (semi unattended)

Any ways those are my points of view about how and why to do it certain ways. Probably missed a few options as well...there is a lot of ways to go about all this.

I personally use AutoIt automation via RunOnce...with a few custom silent installers a few buddies have made for me. I care more for what I end up with in the end...than making a pretty install that really no one will be watching any ways.

[No6]

Some of you guys kill me. You're hillarious. When new users ask questions that have been covered elsewhere, some of you are quick to jump on their backs for being lazy and not searching. Then, on the other hand, instead of encouraging them to learn the basics, you clutter their minds with advanced concepts that leaves them with no option but to start asking more questions, only to be shot down at the next opportunity.

Isn't it obvious that the previous users are new to this sort of thing? Xplode? RunOnce? WPI? Does it seem to you that the people above asking for help are ready to tackle WPI when they don't even understand unattended installation fully? You're doing them a disservice rather than helping them.

[RogueSpear]

Some of you guys kill me. You're hillarious. When new users ask questions that have been covered elsewhere, some of you are quick to jump on their backs for being lazy and not searching. Then, on the other hand, instead of encouraging them to learn the basics, you clutter their minds with advanced concepts that leaves them with no option but to start asking more questions, only to be shot down at the next opportunity.

Ask an advanced question and you'll get an advanced answer. I make a lot of switchless silent installers and I also script a lot of installs for those programs not well suited to the aforementioned method. Believe you me it's no trivial task. There are so many gotchas, so many variables that go into it, that it would be extraordinarily difficult to give an acceptable answer. It took me the last few years of diving in to the Microsoft Installer format, InstallShield AdminStudio, VBscript, AutoIt, 7-Zip, hacking file resources, and on and on.. to get to the skill level that I am at now.

To suggest that somebody could post a guide that would be so detailed and inclusive of so many subtopics, that the reader could actually become adept at this overnight, is really living in a dream. This is why people here post their works.. their scripts, their installers, make their own utilities, etc. To make it easier and to make it feasable for the newcomer to be able to put together an unattended installation, look like a genius, and take all the credit for it as well.

You know how I got to know all this stuff? Reading! A concept not totally forgotten by all Americans. I read my a** off. I read these forums, the forums over at AutoIt, VBscripting, Microsoft's web site, a couple of dozen books at least. Yea, it actually takes some work. And the reason we all get so annoyed is that the majority of people here don't search. It's completely self evident. I have no problem helping others out at all. People here help me all the time. What I have a problem with is helping someone who is so obviously lazy that they can't even perform a basic search. Next thing you know they'll need someone to wipe their backsides as well.

[Nologic]

I see no disservice in giving them a grasp of the different methods available, and why and where to use them.

RunOnce I hardly see as any thing advance...the differnce between ultra basic batch scripts & RunOnce is about 10min's more reading. The difficulty is not there other wise.

Frankly using batch scripts at all is wasting time for the beginner...it would take as much or less time for them to learn how to do the same thing in AutoIt, plus they would have far more power accessable to them right from the get go.

So I see it as counter productive to push old school batch scripts just because thats how many of us started out.

When I got into this the main scripting that was done was in Batch, WSH, and JS...with only one guy having posted any thing to do with AutoIt. Now days its Batch and AutoIt more or less purely...and batch is going away, being replaced with AutoIt. Hell it probably would be gone by now if MHz or I actually sat down and did up a full tut as it relates to unattended installations.

[sleepydvdr]

I can see that unattended installs requires alot of reading. I have been doing that. Thanks to those who mentioned some of the apps used to do these things. That is the kind of direction I was looking for. Just needed some good app names to look up and maybe an idea of how easy/flexible they are. Still reading and learning..

But just wondering why a program can't be developed with the simplicity of nLite. Really, is it not impossible to create a program for unattended installs that could go something like this: step 1: is this install for integrating with nLite or an executable to be run after the OS is installed. step 2: browse for program. step 3: options for install (this is where switches would go, in GUI format of checkboxes for things like silent install and accept EULA + a place to insert serial # like nLite has for its unattended install). step 4: finalize. I mean really. nLite makes it that easy. It only took me an hour from start to finish to create a working disc with nLite my first time using it. Heck, I really don't see why it couldn't be incorporated in nLite itself. Add an option box in the Task Selection section called App Integration and put in steps 2-4 listed above. I am well aware it's not as simple as that. It would require a heck of alot of work on the part of the person/persons who works on nLite. But is it not possible to make app integration this easy? Are there any programmers out there who can tell us if this is just crazy thinking or what?

Also just want to say kudos to nLite! For the power it posses, it is so freakin' easy to use!!!!

[oldbones]

Good Day to all. I would like to reply to all the Vet's of this forum. I am new here. So new that this is my first reply. I have been reading, and Reading for just over a month on this topic. Though I have spent the last 10 years working with Installation programs ect.. I see that you ar all getting alittle out of sorts. The problem is that meny Vet's have work ont his stuf for along time and when some one new comes in, that are always told to searh the formun for the answers nad "not be LAZY". Well the forum has changed. For most, myself included I generally look at the newer postings. Well the Vet may have learned from the older postings that are out of date or are no longer on the site.

So insted of explaining thing in relitivly simple terms they through every thing at us and expect us to understand. Then they call us lazy and tell us to go look at the other posts. Well the other postings alog this line ( new people asking how ) are all the same. " go look it up the issue has been answered" . This is in most of the queations.

Well then where the hell are we to look it up at. If you want to know what it is like goto a forum you know nothing about and try to learn. You will find that you get SH** on just like you do to us. Please help if you can. If your just p***ed because you think we should have looked it up. Think that maybe we have and just did not get somthing, or misundersood somthing. Thus if you are mad at the post. Let it go and just do not respond.

[boggen]

nice details nologic. it took me a couple days. downloading / installing / configuring the varying apps you stated. plus just finding them. on my own. with what i gather on my own given about a week here at msfn. id say you are on the mark. from this newbie look of it all. thx

[RogueSpear]

First of all I should point out that my previous post in here was not aimed at the thread starter. Second point is that asking a question is fine. Asking a question that has already been answered in upwards of a dozen times is a problem. Want a good example?

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=65047

This is a perfect example of why kids should not wear bicycle helmets. We've tampered with natural selection a little too much.

The other major point here is that there is no "best way" to make an application install unattendedly. I myself use three different methods and even those vary from application to application. Getting a quick, concise, and easy to digest answer regarding this topic is simply not possible.

Edited January 12, 2006 by RogueSpear