Unattended Installs

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Windows Messenger

Windows Live MessengerWindows 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.)

By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , ,

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Adobe Flash Player

Flash Player Logo

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.)

By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , ,

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Adobe Shockwave

Adobe Shockwave PlayerAbobe Shockwave Player

Adobe’s Shockwave Player is another one of those small utilities that’s widely used on the Internet and, as a result it’s hard to ignore installing it as part of a standard computer build.  Like Google Earth, Adobe would prefer that you download a small installer program that then completes the download and does the install.  This is fine for one computer but when you’re doing it multiple times per week it’s not as useful.

There are ways to find the full installer but, in the end, I found the easiest way to get hold of it was to sign up to distribute both Shockwave and Flash Player.  If you’re going to be doing standardised installs in some quantity it’s worth it.  You get access to the full installers (including .msi versions if you want them).

I’m still installing an older version at the moment (v10) but will be moving to v11 shortly.

Once you’ve obtained your full installer, this will handle the silent install:

AdobeShockwave_v10.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.)

By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , ,

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Java Runtime

Java Logo

Java Runtime Environment

Commonly used in web-based applications, Sun’s Java is hard to ignore.  Many computer users won’t even be aware of it until it isn’t installed on a computer they’re using.  The Java Runtime Environment (also known as JRE) is the part that needs to be installed for these applications to work.

Sun’s JRE is available here.

This method was tested and working with Sun JRE v6 update 13.

Here is my install command:

jre-6u13.exe /quiet /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.)

By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , ,

Mar 31 2009

Unattended Installs – Firefox

Firefox Logo

Firefox

The choice in web browsers.  Personally, I prefer Firefox over Internet Explorer.  I’ve found it more reliable and stable.  When I’m in web developer mode I also prefer Firefox as it handles rendering of web pages and CSS far more consistently than IE.

Firefox is available here.

This method was tested and working with Firefox v3.0.8.

There’s a few different hints about how to do an unattended install out on the Internet.  This seems to work for my purposes:

Firefox_3.0.8.exe /S /ira

(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.)

By David • Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , ,

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