Silent Install and Uninstall - SuperCROSS
The installation package for SuperCROSS is built with Installshield, which supports "silent" installations.
This feature makes it easy to deploy SuperCROSS throughout your organisation: you simply run the install once, selecting all your preferred installation options and saving these to an "answer file". You can then package this up and repeat the installation as many times as you need. Your chosen settings will automatically be applied without you having to select them each time.
Silent Install
To perform a silent installation, you first need to create an InstallShield "answer file" (setup.iss). This will contain all your required installation settings.
To create an answer file:
- Open a Windows Command window.
- Change to the directory containing the SuperCROSS installer.
Run the SuperCROSS installer (setup.exe) with the /r ("record") switch, AND the GUID parameter (/ig) as below:
TEXTsetup /r /f1<responsefile> /ig{21E20379-9554-48A3-9B28-74537FE2755A}
Replace
<responsefile>
with the name and location of the InstallShield answer file you want to create.Proceed through the installer and complete the installation. The installer will create the answer file and save your responses.
Once you have created your answer file, you can perform an unattended installation by running the SuperCROSS installer with the /s ("silent") option. For example:
setup.exe /s /f1"c:\SX\setup.iss" /ig{21E20379-9554-48A3-9B28-74537FE2755A}
You must either copy the setup.iss answer file to the same directory as the SuperCROSS setup.exe file, or run setup with the /f1 switch to provide the location of the answer file. The /f1 switch allows you to specify a fully-qualified alternate name for the setup.iss file (note that there must be no space between the /f1 switch and the file name).
The /f1 switch works both with /r to create the file and with /s to read it.
You can use the /f2 switch to specify a logfile for the operation. Once again, there must be no space between the switch and the file name.
Silent Uninstall
To silently uninstall SuperCROSS, record an uninstall answer file, and then run it with the /s and /ig switches. The GUID string must be the same as the one used for the install:
setup /r /f1<responsefile> /ig{21E20379-9554-48A3-9B28-74537FE2755A}
For example:
setup.exe /s /f1"c:\SX\setup_uninstall.iss" /ig{21E20379-9554-48A3-9B28-74537FE2755A}
Pre-Configure your Licence Key
If you record an answer file, then this will capture your SuperCROSS licence key, so users will not need to enter this during the installation.
It is also separately possible to pre-configure the installation package with your SuperCROSS licence key. This can be useful in situations where you do not want to use a fully silent installation, but you do want an installer that you can provide to users that will not require them to enter the key during the installation.
To make this change;
- In the SuperCROSS installation package, browse to the product directory.
- Open product.ini in a text editor.
Locate the following section:
CODE[Preset] ; Add license key here to preconfigure install. See license.dat file for key string=
Add your key, and then save your changes to the file.
- You can now provide this installation package to any of your users and they will be able to run the installation without needing to enter the SuperCROSS licence key.
Multiple SuperCROSS Installations
It is possible to install multiple instances of SuperCROSS on a single machine. You can still use the silent installation and uninstallation process in this case, but there are a couple of extra steps you need to take to ensure that the process completes correctly:
- If you perform a silent installation on a machine that already has another version of SuperCROSS installed, then when you perform the silent installation you will need to use a different GUID. Use an online GUID generator (such as https://www.guidgenerator.com) to generate a new GUID, and use this when running the setup process, instead of the one listed above.
- When performing a silent uninstallation, if there are multiple copies of SuperCROSS currently installed then you will be prompted to select which instance you want to remove when you record the uninstall answer file. Make sure you choose the correct version. When you run the silent uninstall process, you must use the same GUID value as you used what that instance of SuperCROSS was installed.