Software Deployment

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Installation is controlled by the config.xml file. Add the following entry for totally silent install.

<Display Level="None" CompletionNotice="No" SuppressModal="no" AcceptEula="yes" />


Above Entry Provided on 2/6/2008 by Herb Smith
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Microsoft has an article on TechNet titled Config.xml in the 2007 Office system. It has lots of helpful information.

Unfortunately that's for MS Expression Web 1.x, and it appears they have changed the way silent installations are performed in version 2.

Here's a screenshot of "setup -?". They mention an XSetup XML manifest file that needs to be CABd.

Does anyone have any experience or reference material for an XSETUP.XML file?

I can find the config.xml within WebCommonSetupFiles.cab, but I'm having difficulty finding where to put the edited version in order to pull those options instead of the default file. Is uncabbing, editing and recabbing the way to go? How would I go about doing this?

I tried uncabbing, editing, and recabbing. The resulting cab was much smaller in size than the original cab and the installation program complained of corruption.

If you uncab all the files to the directories in which they reside, there should be another setup.exe in the %MSEW2path%\Setup folder. You can then go in and modify the unpacked config.xml to specify a silent install, and then run %MSEW2path%\Setup\setup.exe /config XWeb.WW\config.xml to get a silent install.

At least that's how it works in theory. Results have been mixed. Let me know if this works for you.

Did you ever find a solution for this? I'm having the exact same problem.

I have a suspicion the /config switch isn't available unless you have the enterprise version.

The installation cd I downloaded from Microsoft did not support the /Config flag. The only options I got from the setup.exe was the flag -q (quiet installation). The only problem is that when the installation was finished and you started the program the first time it asked for a serialkey!? If I install the program manually the installation do not ask for a key at all.
So had to do some digging to understand the problem.

When you install the program it makes a temp subfolder under the user that you logged in as. If you logged in as Administrator the folder would be something like this C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\XSetup_Web_2008_11_17_21_12_21 (where 2008_11_17_21_12_21 is the date and time the installation started ). In that folder the program creates about 10 new subfolders where the installation downloads files from the internet. One of these folder holds the installation that supports the /Config flag (and also the config.xml with the PID key). In my case the folder name was 438d1ac8_d88e_46eb_ba69_11fef34cce74 (don’t know if is the same on others computer).
But you have to copy the folder some were else before the installation is done, because it deletes the folder when it is finished. But now you have an installation point that you can use with the /Config flag. Just place the config.xml file in the root (same place as the setup.exe). If you don’t have a Config.xml file you can just use the one the program creates.

Hope this helps. It worked for me.

Brian

What you need to do is to install it manually, then export the following key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration\{90120000-0045-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

The part beginning with 90120000 might be different than yours.

Use setup.exe /q to install and then use regedit /s to import the key.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the help. Per the setup log, the installation cab files are 'merged' from the original media (197MB), then copied to the user's %temp% folder, under the 438d1ac8_d88e_46eb_ba69_11fef34cce74 directory as you mentioned. The '438d1ac8...' folder has 80 files, 12 folders and a size of 406MB (425,860,066 bytes). One must copy this folder along with the Config.xml file (one level up in the XSetup dir) during setup to another location on the disk so it doesn't delete after installation.

Once I had the '438d1ac8...' folder with the merged files and the Config.xml, I moved the Config.xml file into the '438d1ac8...' folder and renamed the folder to 'Expression.Web2', placed it on the network, and invoked Setup.exe through a VBS script on another machine. All went great.


VB Script
---
Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
wshShell.run ("""\\Server\Software\Microsoft\OFFICE12\Expression.Web2\Setup.exe""")
Set WshShell = nothing
---