installing .exe

[chrbb]

Whats the quickest and easist way to install software that only have exes, we have quite a few small quick to install educational software packages that need to be on all staff laptops but is a pain to visit each one.

[mattx]

Whats the quickest and easist way to install software that only have exes, we have quite a few small quick to install educational software packages that need to be on all staff laptops but is a pain to visit each one.

If you mean software that runs off a single.exe - [ like some flash / shockwave stuff ] - then I would just knock up a quick logon or standalone script that copies the file off to a location of your choice....

[Jona]

Usually I would look for silent install options, with answer files or failing all else script it with AutoIT.

If you give us more details about the packages in question someone might be able to provide more detailed help.

Cheers
Jona

[chrbb]

I install msi's using gpo but some of the software would take longer to make a msi for a beginner (me) than it does to visit each laptop.

I use autoit to script very lamely just compiling a script and visiting a computer but only clicking once and the script runs, but now I'm thinking that I would either like a script to install the software at startup or so that the staff can click on the script and it will install with domain admin priviledges, but other than making a script to install I'm useless with taking it further.

[dhicks]

I install msi's using gpo but some of the software would take longer to make a msi for a beginner (me) than it does to visit each laptop.

Check http://www.appdeploy.com/ - I think what you're searching for is an MSI "wrapper" around your silent install. I know I've seen it somewhere, I'm pretty sure it was on AppDeploy.

If nothing else, could you use the MS Office MSI installer to run your application? I seem to remember there's an option whilst setting up an administrative install to run an external application before/after install - could you use MS Office as your MSI wrapper?

--
David Hicks

[Michael]

As already mentioned, if it is a single exe which just runs, you could host it on a server share and enter an xcopy command into a logon script:

XCOPY "\\SERVERNAME\SHARE\*.exe" "C:\Program Files\Application"

Or alternatively create an MSI and push it out this way (again as already mentioned)

[Ric_]

There's teh Windows Installer Wrapper Wizard (WIWW) which I use a lot for packaging things like this and silent installs.

http://www.appdeploy.com/downloads/detail.asp?id=1601