I have a question. Lets say i have to deploy a custom os setup to 250 computers and i don't want the user to have to cick enter, enter int he user credential, and click enter once it has decided what name the cojmputer will get right in the biggining of the RIS setup. Is there a way i can pass all that information so that al i have to do is boot the pc and it does everything from start to finish with NO user intervention?

I would appreciate the help.

JOEY5/27/2005 9:53:59 AM

Just a comment about Windows Installer customization. You can use Microsoft Transform(mst) Files to customize the application being installed. I've used them in the past to customize MS and other vendors' apps and then rolled them out with SMS.

John Correa 4/25/2002 6:37:33 AM

Transform Files to the Rescue


The "Superior RIS" articles by Douglas Toombs are excellent. I have something to add to "Superior RIS: Automating Application Setups" (May 2001). The author writes that a drawback to Windows Installer installations is that you can't change the installation parameters. Good news! You can modify the properties for a Windows Installer (.msi) database with a Windows Installer transform (.mst) file.



After you create an .mst file with customized parameters, you can deploy it with the TRANSFORMS property of msiexec.exe. The Microsoft article "How to Use Property Reference Command-Line Parameters with Msiexec.exe" (http://support
.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/
q230/7/81.asp) documents what to do. The command



msiexec.exe /i MyApp.msi TRANSFORMS=MyTransform.mst



installs the MyApp application with the customized parameters in MyTransform.mst.

Christian Schindler 7/12/2001 12:09:03 PM