Can't get silent install to work.

[gekruse]

I am trying to deploy Rainmeter 2.4 r1678 to some of my student's computers. I have the switches from the docs file but when I use the /S switch, it doesn't install at all. Here is what I have tried with the command prompt.

Rainmeter-2.4.exe /S

Then I do a: echo %errorlevel% and get a "4" with that command.

I have no idea what that code means and would greatly appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!

[jsmorley]

I am trying to deploy Rainmeter 2.4 r1678 to some of my student's computers. I have the switches from the docs file but when I use the /S switch, it doesn't install at all. Here is what I have tried with the command prompt.

Rainmeter-2.4.exe /S

Then I do a: echo %errorlevel% and get a "4" with that command.

I have no idea what that code means and would greatly appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!

Try opening the cmd window with "run as administrator" and see if that helps.

[gekruse]

Ok, that worked on my local machine. Now the question is, how can I do this on other machines so I don't have to touch all 250 student machines? Thanks!!

[jsmorley]

I can't think of any good way to "push" an installation to remote machines. You are probably going to have to just put the installer on a network drive that the student machines have access to, and have them install it themselves if you don't want to go lay hands on each machine.

Just to shortcut what I suspect is coming, there is NO way you can lock down the installation after it is on the individual machines. Rainmeter must be able to "write" to the Rainmeter.ini file it stores general settings in, and while you can keep the actual "skins" in a read-only location, they are still going to have a lot of local control of things.

[gekruse]

I'm fine with them having local control of things once it's installed but they aren't local admins on their machines so they can't install it. That's the issue that I'm having.

[jsmorley]

I'm fine with them having local control of things once it's installed but they aren't local admins on their machines so they can't install it. That's the issue that I'm having.

The normal install of Rainmeter is really going to require admin access to the system as it adds the application to "Program Files", installs things to the user's "Appdata" folder on first run, puts a couple of things to the registry and a shortcut to the Startup folder in the Start menu. (so it runs automatically at Windows start.) Pretty much all of those things are going to have Windows quivering with suspicion depending on how UAC is set up.

You could look at doing a "portable" installation, where you would create a batch file or something that they run that just copies a version that you install in portable mode on a network drive to a directory that isn't in "Program Files". Something like "K:\Rainmeter", which would be copied in its entirety to "C:\Rainmeter" on their local machine. That won't require admin access. All files, including skins and the Rainmeter.ini file will reside in that single local folder that is not protected by Windows.

Now the rub it how to get a shortcut to Rainmeter.exe into the Startup folder in the Start menu. I'm not sure offhand I can think of a good way to do that. Maybe someone else has some idea for a way. I'll chew on it a bit, and maybe something will come to me.