CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellinstallationinstallshieldsilent
Haris Hukić
Haris Hukić

Reputation: 11

Silently install InstallShield EXE file with PowerShell

I have exe file created with InstallShield 2018 Express Edition. I need to create PowerShell script that will silently install that exe on different computers.

I have tried all the options I found on google and nothing works. I tried to generate setup.iss answer file with command setup.exe /r and setup.exe /r /f1'-path' and that didn't worked. I could not get that file.

Commands I tried: 

setup.exe /s /v /qn
setup.exe /s /v "/qn"
setup.exe /s /v /qb 
setup.exe /q /norestart
setup.exe /qb /norestart
setup.exe /passive

I converted exe into msi and tried with msiexec but that did not work too.

The problem with all this commands is that UI keeps popping up and I need to click all the buttons to complete the install.

I found also that silent install could be disabled for particular exe. The exe file I use is created with InstallShield project in Visual Studio 2017, so I went to create new build with Silent Install Switch included but I wasn't able to find that option.

The way I partly succeeded is with 

setup.exe /a

then UI is prompted, I click all the buttons and some setup.msi file with size of 1.6mb is generated (setup.exe is 270mb). The app doesn't get installed.

Running that setup.msi of 1.6mb with msiexec command successfully installs app silently on computer where that msi is generated. The problem is that setup.msi can not be used on other computers.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 15250

Answers (3)

Doc
Doc

Reputation: 718

You tried setup.exe /s /v "/qn" but you were so close. There should be no space after the /v option. Try setup.exe /s /v"/qn"

As Ansgar pointed out you need to differentiate between the InstallShield options (setup.exe) and the MSI options. To run the InstallShield setup.exe (bootstrapper) silently just use /s. The /v"/qn property=value" is the pass through option to pass into the MSI within the bootstrapper. The list of MSI command line options, those that can go in between the quotes after /v.

Upvotes: 2

Haris Hukić
Haris Hukić

Reputation: 11

I have used that help command already, but now when I run it just to post screenshot of available commands I noticed space between /S and /v/qn and that is what caused all the trouble.

I did not have that space in my previous attempts.

So the working command is: 

setup.exe /S /v/qn

Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Ansgar Wiechers
Ansgar Wiechers

Reputation: 200483

/qn and /qb are MSI options, not InstallShield options. For InstallShield installers the "silent" option is /s:

/s    Silent mode. For an InstallScript project, the command Setup.exe /s runs the installation in silent mode, by default based on the responses contained in a response file called Setup.iss in the same directory.

Try this:

setup.exe /s

If that doesn't suffice you need to look at what parameters the installer actually accepts (setup.exe /?).

Upvotes: 0

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