automation

Apr 5 2009

Unattended Installs – SyncToy

SyncToyMicrosoft 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.)

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

Apr 5 2009

Unattended Installs – Google Toolbar (IE)

Google ToolbarGoogle 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.)

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

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: , , ,

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