Multiple Silent Installations ?

[vinzet]

Hello again!
Im back for another question, this time regarding running multiple installations silently.
So Ive read a little bit about MSI packs and they're capeable of running them silently in the background.
Is there any way to run multiple msi packs silently ? or chain install them in some sort of way ?

Whats your thoughts? and is there anything extra or programs you could recommend ?

[Cyanotical]

depends on what you are installing, if it's basic software updates, try ninite.com

otherwise, the silent run feature of msi packs is mainly geared for domains with group policy, the only reason the silent feature is there is so IT doesn't get 500 tickets about software updates on a monday morning

[vinzet]

Well, Ive been using ninite.com for installations such as Winrar, Flash, java, etc etc.
But im amining a little bigger programs that ninite dosent cover, for example the CS6,Nero, Fraps, all kinds of different.

[Amorac]

You could execute a bat/cmd file that runs the msi or exe with their parameters for silent installs if the installer support it.

Depending on how complex you want with say error handling you can get rather far with it.

A basic line would be something like

start /wait msiexec /I "path\filename" -parameters

For example the .net 1.1 installer can be run as;
start /wait msiexec /I %systemdrive%\install\dotnet11\netfx.msi /qb

IE8 can be installed with
start /wait %systemdrive%\install\IE8-WindowsXP-x86-NLD.exe /passive /norestart

You would need to find out the parameters needed for other installers tho. Google should be able to offer at least some help.

[Cyanotical]

VBS scripting is probably going to be a bit better, it's pretty much the same as writing a batch file, but a bit more advanced

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/default

[Amorac]

True, VB would offer a lot that a bat file will not be able to handle, especially with error handling. But for just the basics I would stick with bat/cmd files myself.

If you really want to push it making a RIS (or whatever MS calls it these days) server and run the bat (or vbs) script during installation. Or just a bootable iso offcourse.