Running Custom Actiona in silent mode

[amaharja]

Hi,

Is it possible to run custom actions in silent mode? Do custom actions have the support of Reduced, Basic, full and No UI like the .msi files? I would like to run some .exe files in the Basic UI mode, is this possible?

Cheers,
Ajanta.

[RobertDickau]

A custom action normally runs when it's encountered in any UI mode; the UI sequence is skipped for reduced UI levels, though. In the Execute sequence, you can test the UILevel property to detect a silent, basic-UI, etc., installation.

However, running a silent installation won't automatically hide any windows or message boxes displayed by an EXE or DLL action.

[ACBeddoe]

I think the question is simply "How do I hide the command window when running an executable from a custom action?"

For instance, running a command line program line NGEN - how to have the "DOS box" hidden?

[RobertDickau]

If the executable being launched doesn't support a switch to run silently, then something akin to an InstallScript custom action that launches the executable using LaunchApplication with the SW_HIDE switch seems to be common practice.

[ACBeddoe]

RobertDickau wrote:
If the executable being launched doesn't support a switch to run silently, then something akin to an InstallScript custom action that launches the executable using LaunchApplication with the SW_HIDE switch seems to be common practice.

Thank you, Robert. However, a much more useable interface would be having it as an option in the custom action wizard and on the panel. This isn't the only simple, common task that InstallShield makes difficult.