How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Share your favorite tips, workarounds and shortcuts for theWord
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

I'm going to have to try on the next laptop since I went through the interactive on that one already. Should be very soon and I'll get back.

Thanks!
csterg
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by csterg »

OK
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

Ok, here's what happened. I just tried the batch-fired silent install on an acer netbook running Win7 starter. Everything seemed to go well until there was a fatal error. A windows dialog came up that said the prog had to close. Later I tried opening TW, it looked good until it said there were no bibles installed. I clicked No and it closed. I went to program data, and all the subfolders were there except for Bibles.

I also ran across the lack of Bibles on another install I had done, which I had assumed was successful but was not. The difference is that I don't recall the fatal error on that one or the one before it; only on this latest one.

Worse case, I could copy over the Bibles via batch, but it would be nice to get to the root of the problem here. All the installation files are in the same folder.

Blessings.
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

On a full laptop, 64 bit, the silent went perfectly. I've been tweaking the batch files a little, so another netbook test is in order.
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

No, no matter what I do, the /S switch will not install the Bibles into the Programdata directory on the 32 bit netbooks. The interactive works fine.
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

Actually, I have to check more carefully, but I don't think any of the executable packages are installing. I looked through the folder structure in appdata and there were only a few entries in each.

I wonder if an installer permission problem is at work. My master batch is run as admin. It fires a sub-batch in the theword-install folder, which fires the executables. I wonder if write permissions get dropped somewhere down the line.
csterg
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by csterg »

Paul,
I tried to run the whole procedure from scratch in Windows 7 32 bit and worked nicely. I run it interactively from a command prompt (e.g. theword-setup.exe /S) and everything went smoothly.
I am not sure what is wrong, is it possible that your calling it from a script messes things up?
Costas
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

That must be the case, but I'm not sure how. I further discovered that none of the executable modules were installing. While the non-Bible folders were being created, they had only a few entries in them.

I'm perplexed, because once the whole thing did work fine, on a robust Win7 x64 machine. So I wondered whether processor power was a factor, but that doesn't seem possible. I also questioned whether administrative write permissions are being transferred from the master batch to the slave batch to the install file to the module installers. I guess the way to test that is to call the modules directly from the slave batch and see what happens. I wondered whether calling the whole thing from a USB stick matters, but I can't see how. I'm very often still getting fatal errors from the theword installer.

Here is my master batch, run as administrator:

Code: Select all

set /p drive="enter root drive letter of this install batch file:  "
%drive%:
call _theword.bat
The slave batch:

Code: Select all

cd "theword-install"
start /wait "" "theword-setup.exe" /S
cd ..
And graphically, the file structure they're called from, where () = folder:

Code: Select all

<USB Drive>
       (pctools)
               (enhancements)
                      (apps)
                            (theword-install)
                            slave batch 
                       master batch
So the master batch is in enhancements, and the slave batch is in apps.
csterg
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by csterg »

All this seems correct. Does it work if you run it interactively?
Costas
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paul1149
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by paul1149 »

If I click on theword-setup.exe directly, it invariably works fine, interactively.

Yesterday I ran the slave batch directly, without using the master batch, and it worked perfectly. But that was on a full-powered 64 bit Win7 system, similar in specs to a machine on which it also had worked before. That is what made me question whether processor speed or bit architecture has anything to do with it (the addition of the extra program files hierarchy). Most, but not all, of the failures I'm seeing are on relatively weak 32bit Win7 netbooks.

I was thinking of segregating all the modules, and running an installation batch sequence on them after the main install. Haven't gotten to it yet though.
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by csterg »

It cannot be the 32bit or the processor speed, neither makes sense, it is something different,
Costas
Galuf1024
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by Galuf1024 »

I am trying to build a custom front-end to the installer that will let the members of our church select the books that they want to install (There will be tooltips with descriptions of each book), and then it creates an install.ini automatically and installs TheWord with their selected modules. I want to display the actual TheWord installer so that any license agreements that need to display will display such as for the ESV. Is a /S run after I create the install.ini what I want to do, or would a standard install call be what I want? Thanks!
csterg
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by csterg »

Galuf1024 wrote:I am trying to build a custom front-end to the installer that will let the members of our church select the books that they want to install (There will be tooltips with descriptions of each book), and then it creates an install.ini automatically and installs TheWord with their selected modules. I want to display the actual TheWord installer so that any license agreements that need to display will display such as for the ESV. Is a /S run after I create the install.ini what I want to do, or would a standard install call be what I want? Thanks!
Hm, interesting question.
First thing to note (since you bring up ESV), is that it cannot be bundled or redistributed by you (not even by me); it needs to be downloaded from the official site (even the official theWord CDs do not contain the ESV). This is the only module with such a restriction though to be honest, but i just bring it up so you are careful with the license agreements.

Second thing is that it is probably ok to not have the user press 'I agree' on every license of every copyrighted module, since this may be too cumbersome. The license agreements are included in the software and a general 'I agree' should be enough at the main installer.

Given these points, do you want to rephrase the question?
Costas
Galuf1024
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by Galuf1024 »

So for ESV I would have to give them links to the site to download it from. If I remember right the ESV/ESV2011 were the only package I was thinking of including that had an agreement in it, so I think that the silent run will work perfectly for my needs. I have some questions I'll have to look into about how to include ESV into the package, but I think that is all that is needed that is related to this topic.
Galuf1024
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Re: How to perform a silent/custom installation of theWord

Post by Galuf1024 »

This might be better in a different thread, but would using the standard installer for everything but the ESV/ESV2011, and a dynamic download installer for ESV/ESV2011 meet the requirements? Thank you for all of your work.
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