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Running a silent installation on Windows

Network administrators can run Windows client-only installers from the command prompt to install the Surround SCM desktop client on multiple computers without user intervention.

To run the installer in silent mode using the default installation options, enter the following at the command prompt:

<InstallerFilename.exe> -i SILENT

For example:

sscmwininstallclient.exe -i SILENT

Tip: You can also use the -i SILENT option to uninstall components installed during the most recent installation. The uninstaller is located in the Uninstall_Surround SCM folder in the Surround SCM application directory.

Customizing installations

You can customize silent installations to change the installation location, only install specific components, and change other options. You need to use a properties file, which the installer uses to determine the installation options. The properties file can be in the same directory as the installer or on a network drive.

Creating a properties file

You can manually or automatically create a properties file.

To manually create a properties file, download the sscmwininstallclient.properties.txt file and modify it to customize your installation.

Note: Remove the .txt extension from the downloaded file before using it. File extensions are hidden by default in Windows Explorer. If you do not remove the .txt extension, you must specify the full path to the file to use it during installation.

To automatically create a properties file, use the -r option to capture the settings used during installation in a response file that can be used for future installations. To use the -r option, you must specify the filename or a full path to the properties file, or you can use . to create a file with the default filename in the current directory. For example: sscmwininstallclient.exe –r myinstall.properties

Using the properties file during silent installation

To use the properties file during silent installation, use the -f option. For example:

sscmwininstallclient.exe -i SILENT -f C:\sscmwininstallclient.properties

Note: The -f and -r options cannot be used together.

You can specify the full or relative path to the properties file.

If the properties file is in the same directory as the installer, you do not need to specify any parameters. The installer searches the relative directory for files named installer.properties or <InstallerFilename>.properties (e.g., sscmwininstallclient.properties) and uses the settings in the properties file.

If the directory contains both files, installer.properties is used.
If a file is not found and you are performing a new installation, the default installation options are used.
If a file is not found and you are upgrading, values written to the system registry during previous installations are used.

Note: If INSTALLER_UI=SILENT is set in the properties file, you do not need to specify SILENT on the command line.