The Caché for Windows installation utility provides you the option of performing a silent installation on your computer. A typical (non-silent) installation receives the necessary input from the user in the form of responses to dialog boxes. A silent installation does not prompt the user for input; it must get its user input from a response file. The InstallShield Silent application reads the necessary input from the response file at run time and logs setup information in a file.
For each step in a silent installation, use the Setup.exe installation program from the nt directory of the Caché installation.
Record a Response File
A response file is a plain text file consisting of sections containing data entries. To create a response file, simply run the setup with the -r command line parameter:
Setup.exe -r
Answer the prompts as appropriate. InstallShield records all your setup choices in a response file named setup.iss and places the file in the Windows directory (C:\WINNT or C:\Windows, for example).
If you are not running setup.exe from the Windows directory, you may want to use the -f1 parameter to place the setup.iss file in the same directory from where you plan to run the silent install of setup.exe. For example:
Setup.exe -r -f1"C:\cachekit\nt\setup.iss"
Run a Silent Install
After you have created the response file, you are ready to run the setup in silent mode using InstallShield Silent. When running a setup in silent mode, be aware that no messages are displayed. Instead, a log file named Setup.log captures setup information, including whether the setup was successful. You can review the log file and determine the result of the setup.
To launch InstallShield Silent, run setup with the -s command line parameter:
Setup.exe -s
The setup plays back the script created in the previous step. InstallShield also provides the -f1 and -f2 parameters so that you can specify the name and location of the response file and the location of the log file. There are additional parameters available that are described in the following section, InstallShield Silent Command Line Parameters.
To verify if a silent setup succeeded, look at the ResultCode value in the “[ResponseResult]” section of Setup.log. InstallShield writes an appropriate return value after the ResultCode keyname.
If you are not running setup.exe from the Windows directory, be sure to use the -f1 parameter to indicate the location of the response file. For example:
Setup.exe -s -f1"C:\WINNT\setup.iss"
InstallShield Silent Command Line Parameters
The following table describes the silent installation parameters. Unless otherwise indicated these are not case sensitive; uppercase or lowercase letters can be used.
InstallShield Silent Command Line Parameters
Command Line Parameter Description
-fpath\CompiledScript Specifies an alternate compiled script. Unless the compiled script (.ins file) also resides in the same directory as Setup.exe, the full path to the compiled script must be specified. The _setup.dll file must also reside in the same directory as your .ins file. For example, Setup -ftest.ins launches setup using test.ins instead of Setup.ins.
-f1path\ResponseFile Specifies an alternate location and name of the response .iss file. If this option is used when running InstallShield Silent, the response file is read from the directory or file specified by path\ResponseFile. If this option is used with the -r option, the response file is written to the file specified by path\ResponseFile. If the -f option is used. The -f1 parameter must follow the -f parameter
-f2path\LogFile Specifies an alternate location and name of the log file created by the silent installation. By default, Setup.log file is created and stored in the same directory as Setup.ins. If the -f option is used. The -f2 parameter must follow the -f parameter.
-mfilename Causes InstallShield to generate a Management Information Format (.MIF) file automatically at the end of the installation. Do not include a path because the .mif file is always placed in the Windows directory. filename is optional; if you do not specify a file name, the resulting file is named Status.mif.
-m1serial_number Instructs InstallShield to place the indicated serial number in the created .mif file.
-m2locale_string Tells setup to place the indicated locale in the .mif file. English (ENU) is the default. Refer to Microsoft documentation for a complete listing of locale strings.
-r Causes Setup.exe to automatically generate a silent installation .iss file, which is a record of the installation input, in the Windows directory.
-s Runs InstallShield Silent to execute a silent installation.
-SMS Prevents a network connection and Setup from closing before the installation is complete. This parameter, which must be in uppercase, works with installations originating from a Windows NT server over a network.
-z Prevents Setup from checking the available memory during initialization. This parameter is necessary when running a setup on a machine with more than 256 MB of memory; if it is not used, Setup reports insufficient memory and exits.
Silent Setup Log
The default name for the silent setup log file is Setup.log and its default location is Disk1 (in the same directory as Setup.ins). You can specify a different name and location for Setup.log using the -f1 and -f2 parameters.
The Setup.log file contains three sections:
  1. [InstallShield Silent] — Identifies the version of the InstallShield Silent application used in the silent setup. It also identifies the file as a log file.
  2. [Application] — Identifies the name and version of the installed application, and the company name.
  3. [ResponseResult] — contains the result code indicating whether or not the silent setup succeeded.
An integer value is assigned to the ResultCode keyname in the “[ResponseResult]” section. InstallShield places one of the following return values after the ResultCode keyname.
ResultCode Return Values
Return Value Description
0 Successful installation
-1 General error
-2 Invalid mode
-3 Required data not found in the Setup.iss file
-4 Not enough memory available
-5 File does not exist
-6 Cannot write to the response file
-7 Unable to write to the log file
-8 Invalid path to the InstallShield Silent response file
-9 Not a valid list type (string or number)
-10 Data type is invalid
-11 Unknown error during setup
-12 Dialog boxes are out of order
-51 Cannot create the specified folder
-52 Cannot access the specified file or folder
-53 Invalid option selected
The following example shows a Setup.log file for a successful silent setup of InstallShield.
[InstallShield Silent]
Version=v5.00.000
File=Log File

[Application]
Name=InstallShield5
Version=5.00.000
Company=InstallShield

[ResponseResult]
ResultCode=0