No idea offhand, but when I do a scripted installation I use msiexec.exe to run it. That's how you usually automate Windows Installer. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/227091 for a list of msiexec command line switches.

I usually don't use the installer from Visual Studio to build most of my installation packages, I usually use InstallShield for that. With InstallShield I end up with one setup.exe package that includes the addin.msi file. So I don't end up with separate setup.exe and addin.msi files. You can see if setup.exe can be automated using msiexec, if not you can always automate the msi file that's also generated. I believe that eliminates a number of the bootstrap checks done by setup.exe, so that may not work for you.


Ken Slovak

Ok Thanks! Since the setup.exe file contains all the packages needed before the installation of the addin can take place such as the .net framework 2.0, the patch for that, VSTO 2005 SE runtime, and the PIA's for Office 2003, I can't just run the .msi file can I? Also, these don't work with the /quiet switch do they?

Thanks again...

Arsi

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If the pre-requisites and requirements are already installed you don't need the setup.exe program, you can just run the MSI file to install the addin. If you might need those pre-requisites and requirements to be installed you would need the setup.exe program or an equivalent.

I'm not sure about automating setup.exe, as I mentioned. I've never tried it and usually use InstallShield myself in most cases, again as mentioned.

You probably can do some searching on the Web about automating installations created by Visual Studio and see what that turns up.


Ken Slovak

Okay. Great! Thanks for ALL your help.

Arsi

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