How To Create A Custom.ans File For Silent Installation

[dhilipkumar]

How To Create A Custom.ans File For Silent Installations Of Applications Extracted Using InstallShield

By using the commands line switched such as /r or -BuildMode (for applications having setup.exe extracted using the InstallShield Tool) we get a resultant file called Setup.iss or CustomInstall.ans files respectively which is similar to setup.ini files which holds the configuration information as per the user input. Example user wants the InstallDir as C:\Program Files.

Once the application's setup.exe is run using these commandline switches the resultant setup.iss file is placed in C:\Windows folder which has to copied to the root directory where the setup.exe file is placed and then the application is run using the command line switch -s along with 'v and -sms.
Example:C:\>"C:\"Path of RootFolder"\Setup.exe" -s -'v -sms
v used to pass the parameters and sms is used to make the commandpropt wait until the application has been completely installed.

Similarly the command Line -BuildMode captures the user input and at last generates the Custom.ans file which is saved in the root folder from where the setup.exe is run.
Example:C:\>"C:\"Path of RootFolder"\Setup.exe"
-s -RunMode "Drag and Drop the CustomInstall.ans"

Using above two methods the application can be Packaged for silent installtion and also used for silent deployment.