When installing one or two copies of Freedom Scientific software, the easiest option is to manually launch the installer. If you install the software for many people, however, manual installation can become tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are options for automating the installation process ranging from simple to complex.
To avoid connecting to the public internet during installation, you can download an offline installer for each of our products. The installer bundle contains everything needed in a single executable. This executable can be launched with several command line options to customize the installation experience. The two most common are:
- /Silent — run without a user interface
- /DisableExternalServices — disable all product features that require an internet connection
To list all options with instructions, use the /Help command line.
If your deployment infrastructure allows you to run an executable installer, the simplest way of customizing the installation process is to run one of the offline installers with the command line options you need. If these options aren’t granular enough, review the complete list of options found in the AdditionalSettings.ini file. You can extract the AdditionalSettings.ini file from any installer using the /ExtractAdditionalSettings command line option. This file is well annotated with its customization possibilities. Make your desired customizations and place AdditionalSettings.ini along side the installer at install time.
If further customization is needed, you can use the /Layout option followed by the full path to a directory where individual .msi files will be placed. You can then sequence the files yourself. By default, /Layout extracts files in the same language as the system language. You can change the language or extract installers in multiple languages using the Options button, which is available when you launch an installer with /Layout.
The /Layout option only works properly with our Connected Installers, which are the ones available by default on the Freedom Scientific Downloads page. It does not work with Offline Installers.
The /Layout option also creates an “Example MSI scripts” directory, which contains batch files that run the installers in the proper sequence with the necessary flags. The scripts exemplify how to install using this approach.
If you support multi-user installations of our software, you may also find our enterprise licensing options appealing. For more details, contact Freedom Scientific Customer Support.