Apr 5 2009

Unattended Installs – Windows Media Player v11

Windows Media Player v11

Vista has WiMP 11 included so this really only applies to Windows XP. My workshop still does enough work on Windows XP to warrant inclusion of this package – if only on the basis of reducing the Windows Update downloads.

The download for WiMP v11 is here.

The install command I use is:

XP_WiMP11.exe /Q:A /C:”SETUP_WM.EXE /Q:A /R:N /P:#e”

I believe I originally obtained this particular setup out of an one of the last working AutoPatcher downloads before Microsoft rained on their parade.  There’s quite possibly a more recent version now but this still works, and, in combination with Heise Offline Updates covers my requirements. YMMV.

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: automation, build disc, silent install, unattended install

Apr 5 2009

Unattended Installs – SyncToy

Microsoft SyncToy

A nice little free tool from Microsoft that lets you synchronise data between your computer and a USB pen drive (actually, it will work between other directories too).

The most recent version I can find is SyncToy v2.0 which can be downloaded here.

The silent install for SyncToy is:

SyncToySetup.msi /passive /norestart

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: automation, build disc, silent install, unattended install

Apr 5 2009

Unattended Installs – Google Toolbar (IE)

Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer

The silent installers setup on my build disc includes Firefox which has it’s own toolbar-based search capability (Google included).  Installing the toolbar for Internet Explorer keeps all bases covered no matter what browser might be in use at the time.

In this case, Google is actually pretty helpful.  What you’ll need is Google Toolbar for the Enterprise.  This is freely available from Google and includes an MSI file and documentation on how to implement it.

For my purposes, this was all that was needed:

GoogleToolbarInstaller.msi /passive /norestart

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: automation, build disc, silent install, unattended install

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Windows Messenger

Windows Live Messenger

Why are we supposed to be protected from the terrors of a full download version of these programs?  From what I see of people using my public Internet kiosk computers and hear from people buying computers from my business, Messenger (aka MSN, aka Windows Live Messenger) is about the most popular choice. Far more so, it seems, than Yahoo Chat or Google Talk – at least in the home user market that we primarily deal with.

Of course, Messenger is now a full suite of programs rather than just a chat client.

The usual drill applies, judicious use of Google will no doubt find you a link to the full install (I found this one).

When I first tried to set up the unattended install for Live Messenger I found this Microsoft Knowledge Base article and I’m still using this in my current build while I test and integrate the newer version I’ve recently located.

As a result, expect an update to this post detailing unattended installs for Live Essentials sometime in the future.

For now, if you’re happy with the older version detailed in the above MS KB then, using the download URL they offer (which still works, I just checked), you can use this:

WLSetup.exe /silent /configfile: .WLSetup.txt

My WLSetup.txt looks like this:

p=31BB3B1C-5A3D-4E68-82A1-3C166F03C379*0,88459F2D-0CF8-4558-B6AB-6E19B6AC34B0*0,A26D7C8B-875D-48E2-BED1-7168268D022A*0&s=0&h=0&c=0&m=EN-US&t=1

(for an explanation of this config file see the MS KB article.)

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: automation, build disc, silent install, unattended install

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe’s Flash Player is one of those “essential” tools for anyone using the Internet.  You don’t notice how many web sites are using it until it isn’t available and you suddenly find heaps of web sites that just don’t work properly.

Unfortunately, it’s yet one more of those bits of software that doesn’t let you just download the full installer.  Instead, you download a small program that downloads the rest and installs it.  If you’re persistent with your Google searching you’ll probably find a full installer somewhere but, in the end, my own need was sufficient to sign up to distribute the Flash Player.  It’s not all that onerous to do this and does have the advantage of getting you the full installs easily.

There’s a Flash Player for Internet Explorer and for Firefox as different products.  If you’re supporting both browsers on a computer you’ll need to install both.  I always install Firefox before I install the Flash Player so just install both versions, like this:

AdobeFlashPlayer_ie_v9.exe /S
AdobeFlashPlayer_moz_v9.exe /S

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: automation, build disc, silent install, unattended install