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Performing a Silent Installation

The typical use of silent installers involves preparing and testing a first install on a single machine that is representative of machines to be updated on the network.

The installer is run in interactive mode while the output is being captured to a response file.

The response file contains the required responses to the installation prompts. InstallShield can create a Setup.iss response file for you. See the topic Performing a Typical or Compact Installation or Performing a Custom Installation but run the installation from the command line using the Setup.exe /r command line parameter (that is Setup.exe /r /f1ʺC:\Temp\Setup.issʺ). InstallShield records your installation choices in Setup.iss and places the file in the Windows folder.

After the response file has been created and tested, your IT administrator can use a network utility to execute the installation in silent mode over the network to like machines. Provide the IT administrator with the Setup.exe /s command line (Setup.exe /s /f1ʺC:\Temp\Setup.issʺ) and response file.

By default:

  • The installation is run based on the responses contained in the response file named Setup.iss located in the same directory.
  • The log file Setup.log is created in the same directory and with the same name (without the extension) as the response file.