Silent Installation

A silent installation installs software without any user intervention. This means that there are no questions to be answered, dialogs to complete, keys to be pressed, etc. during the installation process. This type of installation is frequently used if it is necessary to install one application during installation of another, or if a patch or update is to be installed on many systems, for example.

This section describes how you can modify the USoft setup process so that it will run in silent mode.

When the USoft setup utility is used to install USoft software, the installer automatically creates three additional files in the USoft installation folder:

·	uninstall.exe

·	install.log

·	install.sss

The install.sss file is the Silent Setup Settings file, which contains all the information about the most recent installation. This file can be used as a form of template together with the USoft setup utility to install a copy of USoft on another machine, for example, which will use exactly the same settings, installation folder, selected features, and so on as the original setup. If a repeat installation is run with the SilentMode=1 variable set, either on the command line or as a setting in the install.sss file, the installation will be silent.

To run a silent setup the following actions must be taken:

·	Create an install.sss parameter file containing the required setup settings.

·	Copy this file to the new location where it is to be used. This can be on a different machine.

·	Tell the USoft setup utility where to find this parameter file. This is done by setting registry keys and values on the target machine on which a silent installation is to be run.

·	Start the Silent Setup.

These subjects are covered in more detail in the following related topics.