How-To: Clicker 6 Deployment

[ID-10-T]

Howdy, peoples!

 

I thought I'd share my experience with packaging and deploying Clicker 6 using SCCM. This process may also work for Clicker 7, but since we aren't licensed for it I haven't tested it.

 

Clicker 6 doesn't play well with SCCM for standalone deployment and the network installation relies on UNC paths to network shares. Neither of these options is workable for me so here is my own hybrid solution to deploying Clicker 6:

 

Part I:

 

1. Create a working directory and create three(3) subdirectories: Installer, MSI and Resources.

2. Share the Resources directory so it's accessible from the network; this is a temporary step required for the process to complete.

3. Locate your Clicker6.exe file and extract it to the Installer directory.

4. Run Setup.exe, choose the "Install Clicker on a computer network"option and click Install.

5. Follow the bouncing ball and enter your serial number when required.

6. The Network Installation Point will be the MSI directory.

7. The Shared Files Path must be a UNC path to your Resources folder.

8. Choose the option to install the Xiph Codecs and select/deselect any additional options you want.

9. Select "Activate Clicker during installation", accept the license and allow Clicker 6 setup to complete.

 

Part II:

 

Go ahead and unshare the Resources directory. You can also delete the Installer directory or, better, back it up to a safe place. Going forward, we only need the MSI and Resources directories.

 

Drill down into MSI\Config and open the "Installinfo.ini" in your editor-of-choice. This file contains some of the options yous elected during Part I above as well as some additional network options that we are not interested in. Play with the other options if you want to change some of your selections from Part I but what we are interested in is the NETWORKINSTALLMODE= switch. Mine was set to"Workstation"and "Laptop"was commented out. Flip those two so "Laptop"is enabled and "Workstation"is commented. Laptop mode configures Clicker 6 to run locally and offline; no more network dependencies! Save your changes and exit.

 

Part III:

 

From here, running the "MSI\Clicker6-en.msi" file will install Clicker on a local system. You can run this file directly and follow the bouncing ball or you can package up both the MSI and Resources directories for silent installation with your preferred method of distribution. I'm deploying with SCCM and Powershell Application Deployment Toolkit (PSADT) so I copied the aforementioned directories to the PSADT Files directory and edited the Deploy-Application.ps1 file to drill down into the MSI directory and run "Clicker6-en.msi" with the good old /QN switch. During my testing, I found the installer will also let me change the installation path using INSTALLDIR="\path\to\new\location" so it's possible other switches may work as well, however, I haven't tested anything.

 

Hopefully, someone out there finds this write-up a somewhat useful guide. Otherwise, please feel free to entertain yourself by correcting my spelling and grammar. I have a few more of these How-To guides on my radar for some of the more challenging software I encounter so let me close up this article by asking: is there a better place to post these types of guides or should I just post in what I believe is the most appropriate forum for the specific guide in question...?

 

Anyway, thanks for indulging me, folks!