Many software installation programs must receive input from end users in the form of responses to dialogs. A silent installation is one that does not prompt the user for input. The silent installation gets input from a response file at run time. A response file is a text file that contains configuration and setup parameters for the products and components that are being installed. The format of response files resembles that of an .ini file, but with an .iss extension.

To create a response file when your executable setup file supports relative paths

  1. Create the response file for the Setup program.

  2. Copy the response file to the same folder as the Setup files.

  3. In the command-line parameters for the package, specify the response file name. For example, in this example you are packaging a TEST-Install.iss, setup.log, and TEST.exe setup program together. Specify the file names in the command-line options as follows:

      Copy Code 
    c:\test_temp> TEST.exe /s /f1"TEST-Install.iss" /f2"setup.log"

To create a response file when your executable setup file supports absolute paths

  1. Create the response file for the Setup program.

  2. Copy the configuration file to a local network location. The computers on which you are installing software should have a drive mapped to this location.

  3. In the command-line parameters for the package, specify the response file name. For example, if you are packaging a TEST-Install.iss, setup.log, and TEST.exe setup program together, you can specify the file names in the command-line options as follows (assuming that the mapped drive is the Z: drive):

      Copy Code 
    c:\test_temp> TEST.exe /s /f1"Z:\test_temp\response\TEST-Install.iss" /f2"Z:\test_temp\setup.log"

See Also