Partial Silent Install

[dhofferber]

My installation requires prerequisites for SQL Server and .Net 3.5. Most users have .Net 3.5 but most do not have SQL Server. The installation of SQL Server takes a long time and goes through a large number of diaologs. What I would like to do is a silent install of just the prerequisites (showing only progress) and then continue a non silent install of my application. Any ideas on how I might do this? /q can be added to the prerequisite installation command but only if the entire installation is silent.

Thanks in advance.

[Earthshine]

this is why i don't use pre-reqs from InstallShield. We use the real thing from MS, and I CAN do a quiet installation, even in my NON SILENT installation.

SdShowMsg("Installing SQL Server Express 2005. This may take several minutes. Please be patient.", TRUE);
if (SYSINFO.bIsWow64) then
	szProgram = SRCDIR ^ SD_PREREQS ^ "en_sql_server_2005_express_edition_sp2_x64.exe";
else
	szProgram = SRCDIR ^ SD_PREREQS ^ "en_sql_server_2005_express_edition_sp2_x32.exe";
endif;

szCmd = "/qn ADDLOCAL=all REBOOT=ReallySuppress DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=2 SQLAUTOSTART=1 SECURITYMODE=SQL SAPWD=123";
nResult = LaunchAppAndWait(szProgram, szCmd, LAAW_OPTION_WAIT);
if (nResult < 0) then
	SdShowMsg("Installing SQL Server Express 2005. This can take several minutes. Please be patient.", FALSE);
	MessageBox ( SQLSERVEREPRESS_INSTALL_FAILED, SEVERE );
	return 0;
endif;

[MichaelU]

Sure, you can always use the prerequisite editor to change the prerequisite's command line for either silent or non-silent installations.

[dhofferber]

Michael,

I thought the entire install had to be silent to use silent install for the prerequisites. Am I wrong?

Earthshine,

Are you using Install script or is this a custom action in a basic InstallShield MSI?

[MichaelU]

@dhofferber: If the setup believes it should run prerequisites silently (such as when it's running silent itself), it will use the silent command line to launch the prerequisite. However there's absolutely nothing which prevents the silent command line from running a prerequisite with its full UI or the (non-silent) command line from running a prerequisite silently.