Adobe Updates – Download Location

For those who want to script the installation of Adobe Updates for products such as CS4, you can easily obtain all of the update files by letting the “Adobe Updater” application download them for you on a machine that already has the software installed. Before you install the updates on that machine grab a copy of the updates in one of the following locations.

Windows Vista and Windows 7:
%Userprofile%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Updater6\Install

Windows XP:
%appdata%\Adobe\Updater6\Install

Deploying AutoCAD 2010

Installing AutoCAD 2010 with scripts is fairly painless. First use the setup utility to create a new “Deployment,” saving the deployment to a network path. Once you have created a new deployment browse to the network path you saved it to. In this folder you should have three items, a folder called “AdminImage”, a folder called “Tools”, and a shortcut with the name of your deployment. View the properties of the shortcut and copy the “Target” field.

The target field should be simular to the following (One Line):

\\server\share\AutoCAD_2010\AdminImage\setup.exe /qb /I \\server\share\AutoCAD_2010\AdminImage\AutoCAD_2010_x86.ini /language en-us

Append this line with /wait to acheive a result simular to the following (one line):

\\server\share\AutoCAD_2010\AdminImage\setup.exe /qb /I \\server\share\AutoCAD_2010\AdminImage\AutoCAD_2010_x86.ini /language en-us /wait

Now just execute the command above from your scripts!

The AutoDesk Documentation is available here (pdf), but the document only provides an example in visual basic script.

Bonus:

If you wish to deploy the Visual C Runtime, DirectX, .NET 3.5 SP1, etc separately you can edit the .ini file referenced in the command above to remove this functionality (”\AdminImage\AutoCAD_2010_x86.ini” in this example). Simply open the file in a plain text editor and remove the references to the components you do not wish to have the setup install on the “PREREQUISITE” lines in the “[ACAD]” and “[ADR]” sections.

Deploying Maya 2010

Below is a sample script for installing Maya 2010 Silently. Keep in mind many of the lines are long, and are likely to wrap in a web browser.

SET MAYA2010INSTALLPATH=<Insert Your Path to the folder containing the MSI Files below>

SET MAYA2010SERIALNUMBER=<Insert Your S/N>

SET MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY=<Insert Your Product Key>

SET MAYA2010LICSERVER=<Insert Name of your License Server (i.e. DNS Name)>

msiexec /i “%MAYA2010INSTALLPATH%\Maya_Docs_en_US2010.msi” /qb REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS

msiexec /i “%MAYA2010INSTALLPATH%\isscript.msi” /qb REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS

msiexec /i “%MAYA2010INSTALLPATH%\Maya2010.msi” /qb ADLMSERIALNUMBER=%MAYA2010SERIALNUMBER% ADLM_PRODKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMPRODUCTKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMLICENSETYPE=3 ADLMSERVERNAME=%MAYA2010LICSERVER% REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS

msiexec /i “%MAYA2010INSTALLPATH%\MatchMover2010.msi” /qb ADLMSERIALNUMBER=%MAYA2010SERIALNUMBER% ADLM_PRODKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMPRODUCTKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMLICENSETYPE=3 ADLMSERVERNAME=%MAYA2010LICSERVER% REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS

msiexec /i “%MAYA2010INSTALLPATH%\AutodeskDirectConnect4.0.msi” /qb  ADLMSERIALNUMBER=%MAYA2010SERIALNUMBER% ADLM_PRODKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMPRODUCTKEY=%MAYA2010PRODUCTKEY% ADLMLICENSETYPE=3 ADLMSERVERNAME=%MAYA2010LICSERVER% REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS

Source: Deployment of Maya 2010

Better Altiris Deployment Solution Job Shortcuts

While it’s nothing new that you can use the Altiris Exit Codes to schedule another job and essentially create a shortcut, if you drag and drop large groups of jobs quickly enough, some jobs can run before other jobs are scheduled and things can get out of the expected order. To alleviate this issue you can set the “shortcut” job to run on the deployment server. This will allow the “shortcut” jobs to schedule their corresponding jobs more quickly. Click the thumbnail below for a demonstration of where to set this option.

Disable PC Speaker Beep

Just open an elevated command prompt, and type the command below in. It will disable the “beep” service.


sc config beep start= disabled

To turn it back on, type:

sc config beep start= auto