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Table Of Contents
CHAPTER 7 Deploying and Maintaining Packages
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Installing a Package Silently
If you are installing a VMware ACE package on a number of Windows host computers,
you may want to use the silent installation features of the Microsoft Windows Installer.
Before installing a VMware ACE package silently, you must ensure that the host
computers have version 2.0 or higher of the MSI runtime engine. This version of the
installer is available in versions of Windows beginning with Windows XP. The installer
for the runtime is also included in the VMware ACE package as instmsiw.exe.
To install the runtime silently from the VMware ACE package, issue the following
command:
instmsiw.exe /Q
This section outlines what you need to do to install a VMware ACE package silently.
For additional details on using the Microsoft Windows Installer, see the Microsoft Web
site.
To perform a silent installation using default settings, issue the following command:
msiexec -i package.msi /qn
This command installs the package and application (if included) into the default
locations and creates a shortcut for each virtual machine on the desktop. The default
location for the VMware ACE application is <ProgramFiles>\VMware\VMware
ACE. The default location for the virtual machine files is
<CommonAppData>\VMware\VMware ACE\<project_name>.
You can customize the basic package installation command to specify one or more of
the following:
Installation directory for the virtual machine
Installation directory for the VMware ACE application
Installation without a desktop icon
The following example command illustrates the options and their usage:
msiexec -i package.msi DESKTOP_SHORTCUTS=0
INSTALLDIR="G:\packages"
APP_PROPERTIES="INSTALLDIR=""D:\My Apps\VMware ACE""" /qn
Enter the command on one line.
Option Description
DESKTOP_SHORTCUTS When set to 0, skips installation of virtual machine shortcuts on the
desktop. The default is 1.