Revision Date: 2007-12-07
Problem:
How do I perform an unattended (or silent) install or uninstall of a PQ System product?
Solution:
The install for PQ Systems products is created using InstallAware.
Older versions of PQ product installs used InstallShield - the following information does not apply to these old InstallShield created installs.
Unattended Install
When an unattended (or silent) install is requested, the installation program attempts to install the product without any user interaction. However, in some situations the installation program will request interaction with the user during a silent install:
- If a previous instance of the same Major.Minor version of the product exists it will automatically be uninstalled prior to installing the new version. The installation program will prompt the user if a reboot is necessary after uninstalling the previous instance, or an error occurs. In our experience this prompt rarely occurs. However, the prompt will likely occur if the PQ product is being used at the time.
- If a needed prerequisite for the product must be installed the prerequisite installation will occur automatically. The installation program will prompt the user if a reboot is necessary after installing the prerequisite, or an error occurs. In our experience this prompt rarely occurs.
In order to install in silent mode you must use the /s command line switch when running the install (as follows):
ProductInstallProgram.exe /s
If a reboot is needed after the install completes:
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\PQ Systems\RebootNeeded will exist and contain the value 1.
- The exit code from the installation program will return 1.
If a reboot is not needed after the install completes:
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\PQ Systems\RebootNeeded will NOT exist.
- The exit code from the installation program will return 0.
Unattended Uninstall
In order to uninstall in silent mode you must use the following command line switches when running the install (as follows):
ProductInstallProgram.exe /s MODIFY=FALSE REMOVE=TRUE UNINSTALL=YES
