Promethean Activ Studio unattended install

[cjohnsonuk]

Has anyone managed to get an unattended / silent install of the Activ studio to work? We're reinstalling every PC in school this summer and I want to minimise the number of installs of software that we currently have to do manually.

Thanks

Chris

[AngryTechnician]

Yes. We have Activstudio 3 deployed via Group Policy. Not the latest version, so I can't be 100% sure the latest will work, but here's what we did to get it working:

1. Run the downloaded setup program (ActivstudioPE3_v3.x.xx_setup.exe) with a /a switch
2. Copy the extracted files to your software share
3. Open the extracted ActivstudioPE3.msi in Orca
4. Create a new transform (Transform menu -> New Transform)
5. Add the following values in the Property table:
   
   • PIDKEY - your serial number
   • COMPANYNAME - Your company name
   • ALLUSERS - 2
6. Change the RebootYesNo value to No (not sure if this is strictly necessary or not)
7. Save the new transform (Transform -> Generate Transform) and deploy!

The driver package is a separate deployment, but requires no customisation - simply extract the MSI using the /a switch and deploy it.

[garethedmondson]

I'm sure there is plenty of information on the Promethean Support website for this. I know we have just packaged up the Inspire version ready for testing and deployment in the final weeks of this term.

There was a pdf file detailing the steps we had to take.

We have not got it perfect at the moment but it's nearly there.

Gareth

[cjohnsonuk]

OK, So I've used Orca for my install key, username, company name and the "all users" option.

Now can I set:
the shared resources location
it not to display tips
it to automatically choose intermediate
it to not pester me about 16 bit graphics mode
and all that other stuff that stops me getting to the point where I can actually create a slide?

If these are registry hacks I can apply them afterwards if need be.

And as I'm now looking at deploying it everywhere the license issue arises that I'm not permitted to run it on a PC with a projector or non promethean interactive device/board. Does this apply to schools too? If it does has anyone contacted Promethean for a price?

CJ

[Jon]

Before you deploy Activ Studio, take a look at Activ Inspire...

It is the latest/replacment version of Activ Studio/Primary and is available for download from promethean as a free upgrade if you can supply a Studio/Primary serial number.

I have deployed it very succesfully in several schools now with no problems at all. In the .exe you download there is a built in network install option that will unpack the MSI files you need. It also comes with "asserialnumbervalidator.exe" and "ASTransGen.exe" to help you create an approipiate .mst file and admin.ini file.

[tomscaper]

I had trouble putting in the licence key into the msi so i created a seperate msi that copied the

as2pe.dat

to

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ACTIV Software\Activstudio3

This is where the active studio licence file exists so when you deploy the msi it will pick up the licence key automatically.

[Jon]

If you deploy Inspire there is no hassel with including the licence in to the MSI, you simple create an ".inspire_license.xml" file with the supplied tools, and put it in the same directory as the "activinspire.MSI."

[cjohnsonuk]

Before you deploy Activ Studio, take a look at Activ Inspire...

It is the latest/replacment version of Activ Studio/Primary and is available for download from promethean as a free upgrade if you can supply a Studio/Primary serial number.

I have deployed it very succesfully in several schools now with no problems at all. In the .exe you download there is a built in network install option that will unpack the MSI files you need. It also comes with "asserialnumbervalidator.exe" and "ASTransGen.exe" to help you create an approipiate .mst file and admin.ini file.

Has anyone found if studio and inspire be installed at the same time? I want to allow staff to use it without forcing them to use it.

[Jon]

Yes they will run happily alongside each other...

[cjohnsonuk]

OK, I got the install working great! Customised the msi using orca.
But I now need to get the uninstall working silently! If I run "msiexec /x/qn mycustomactivstudio3.msi"
it throws an error listing the possible msi command line options. If I just use the /x option it prompts me yes/no in a windows dialogue box.

Any suggestions how I can uninstall this silently?

Our application deployment system (wpkg) works better if its deployed whilst configured with the correct uninstall command.

Chris

[Benmorgan86uk]

Hi Chris,

I don't know if his is any use to you, but if you are using a Windows based domain and use active directory/group policy, could you not use your modified .msi package and roll this out through software installation policy?

In line with that, could you not attach the current installer as a software installation policy, wait for policy to update on all clients, and make sure the "uninstall when object falls out of scope" option is checked.

Might be worth a test, not something I have tried, most of the time if your using a software installation policy, it will update the existing package, or install alongside.

Hope this might be of some use.

[Chmmr]

Has anyone managed to get an unattended / silent install of the Activ studio to work? We're reinstalling every PC in school this summer and I want to minimise the number of installs of software that we currently have to do manually.

Thanks

Chris

Chris,

What I have just done (right now ) is created a batch file to do a silent install.
The steps I took
- Downloaded the latest ActivInspire software.
- Ran an install but didn't let it continue, and in the mean time copied ALL the files that it extracted to one of our servers.
- Created a batch file in Notepad and saved it on the server

"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\ActivDriver\ActivDriver x86\ActivDriver x86.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\App\ActivInspire.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\HWR\ENU\ActivInspireHWRRes.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\Res\ENU\ActivInspireCoreRes.msi" /quiet /norestart
shutdown.exe -r -f -t 1 -c ActivInspire

It's still running on the computer so I'll have to check it worked 100% but fingers crossed.

[Chmmr]

IT WORKED!

I made one change to the batch file though so that it would uninstall the old version first. It now looks like this:

MsiExec.exe /norestart /passive /x {7970AA03-F817-4916-AE77-80DC801646CC} REMOVE=ALL
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\ActivDriver\ActivDriver x86\ActivDriver x86.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\App\ActivInspire.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\HWR\ENU\ActivInspireHWRRes.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\Res\ENU\ActivInspireCoreRes.msi" /quiet /norestart
"\\\\SERVER\applications\ActiveInspire\Extractions\Activsoftware\Help\USA\ActivInspireHelp.msi" /quiet /norestart
shutdown.exe -r -f -t 1 -c ActivInspire

[marsdenprimary]

I've been granted with a lovely nightmare after deploying Inspire across our network. I deployed the driver too and it managed to affect ALL our boards and stopped them all from working!!!

I managed to find an MSI cleanup tool to remove the old 4.1.14 driver (which seemed to be causing the problem) installed the newest driver and all is well...on XP machines...

Our few Windows 7 machines however are a different story. I cannot, for the life in me, remove the old 4.1.14 driver!!! It doesn't say it is installed anywhere. Not in ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS or anywhere else.

The MSI Cleanup tool only works for XP! If anyone knows of a similar tool for Win 7 PLEEEEASE help!!

[Chmmr]

marsden,

Have you searched in the registry for anything in relation to ActivInspire or ActivDriver?