When running an installer generated by DeployMaster, several parameters can be passed on the command line that affect how the installer is run.
A setup package built with DeployMaster can be installed silently. That is, DeployMaster will do its job without asking any questions and without displaying anything on the screen. It also won’t run the application after installing, if you specified that on the Finished tab. This is useful to install software in an automated fashion over a network.
To do this, simply specify the /s or /silent parameter on the command line. E.g.: setup.exe /silent.
Note that DeployMaster cannot suppress questions and messages from 3rd party installers. You’ll have to configure those to run silently if you want your users to be able to install your software silently.
The uninstaller also recognizes the /s and /silent parameters to perform a silent uninstallation: undeploy.exe /silent.
If you turned on “install for all users” or “require admin rights” on the Project page then the installer and uninstaller will trigger a black screen security prompt on Windows Vista and later if you run them without administrator privileges. To avoid this (and thus make the process truly silent) you need to launch a silent installation from a command prompt or other process that is already running as administrator. Tools designed for automated software distribution generally do this since most installers require admin rights.
When software is deployed automatically users sometimes wish to suppress creating desktop icons. This can be done with the /nodesktop command line parameter. This parameter tells the installer not to put anything on the user’s desktop. /nodesktop can be used with or without the /silent parameter.
If an installer was built with “32-bit and 64-bit application for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows” selected on the Platform page, you can use the /32 command line parameter to force the 32-bit version of the installer to run on 64-bit Windows. This can be useful to create a 32-bit portable installation for use on other computers that are running 32-bit Windows while your own PC is running 64-bit Windows.
The setup.exe that DeployMaster generates is a stub with the installer and the files to be installed as its payload. When the stub runs, it extracts the actual installer into the temporary files folder and executes it. Only then does the installer appear on the screen. This will not work if a Software Restriction Policy blocks executables in the temporary files folder. To allow the installer to run, pass the /temp command line parameter followed by the path to a folder that can be written to and that software can be run from, e.g.: setup.exe /temp “C:\My Folder\”.
The /appfolder, /appcommonfolder, /appmenu, and /userdata command line parameters can be used to change the actual folders used for files placed under %APPFOLDER%, %APPCOMMONFOLDER%, %APPMENU%, and %USERDATA% on the Files page. If your installer uses a support DLL to define additional installation folders, then those folders can also be changed by using the name of the folder as a command line parameter. The purpose of these parameters is to allow the installation folder to be changed when using the /silent command line parameter. If the software was previously installed, using these command line parameters changes the installation folder, just like the Advanced Installation button can be used to change the folders of an existing installation.
These command line parameters can be used without /silent. In that case, when using the Advanced Installation button, the default folders will be those specified on the command line. Selecting different folders via Advanced Installation overrides the command line parameters.