Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

Silent installs of VCRedist.EXE shipped with VS2005

Nikola Dudar's WebLog — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 03:44:38 GMT

Aaron has a post on his blog that describes way of silent install of VCRedist.EXE. I though I would cross-link

Links to more detailed information about using the VC runtime files in VS 2005 SP1

Aaron Stebner's WebLog — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:52:16 GMT

I have previously posted a few items about deploying the Visual C++ 8.0 runtime redistributable packages

Standalone VC 8.0 SP1 runtime redistributable packages are available for download

Aaron Stebner's WebLog — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:28:38 GMT

I previously wrote a blog post about updated versions of the Visual C++ 8.0 runtime files that shipped

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

Anthony Wieser — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:36:39 GMT

It looks like in the SP1 version of the libraries, the internal files have different names:

For x86: vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qb!"" "

appears to be the right way to go for x86.

For x64 it remains unchanged.

Anthony Wieser

Wieser Software Ltd

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:44:50 GMT

Hi Anthony - Good catch! I'll update this post with the new command line needed for the SP1 versions of these packages.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

AlGrissom — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:04:09 GMT

Thank you. Very useful info.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

Scott Lawrence — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:10:35 GMT

I am still having problems getting the vcredist_x86 to install silently.

I am using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and the downloaded version of the VC++ redist. I am modifing the bootstraper Product.XML.

When I look inside the self-extracting file vcredist_x86.exe I can see that it contains the VCREDI~3.EXE file.

So in my C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\vcredist_x86\product.xml

I am using:

vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qb!"" ".

This does not seem to work silently!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Product

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/2004/01/bootstrapper"

ProductCode="Microsoft.Visual.C++.8.0.x86"

</PackageFiles>

</InstallChecks>

<Command PackageFile="vcredist_x86.exe"

Arguments=' /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qb!"" "'>

</InstallConditions>

</ExitCodes>

</Command>

</Commands>

</Product>

Any help in getting this to perform a silent-no-UI install is greatly appreciated.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:20:06 GMT

Hi Scott - I'm sorry for the confusion here. The command lines I originally listed in this blog post are for an unattended install (one that shows a small progress dialog but does not require any user interaction). You can achieve a fully silent install by changing the /qb! command line switch to /qn. I've updated the wording of this blog post to reflect this to try to avoid confusion in the future.

Hopefully this helps!

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

Scott Lawrence — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:43:36 GMT

Thank you for your response.

When i run the setup.exe that is created by the deployment project i am receiving a dialoge box that contains:

The following components will be installed on your machine:

Visual C++ Runtime Libraries (x86)

Do you wish to install these components?

If you choose Cancel, setup will exit.

Install Cancel

This pops up on install no matter what i have done to try to silence it.

I hoped using the command switches you identified would do it but the dialogue message still appears.

Any hlep you can provide on this appreciated.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:00:29 GMT

Hi Scott - Unfortunately, the bootstrapper setup.exe that is created by the Visual Studio setup/deployment projects does not support fully silent installs of packages that it chains. The command lines I listed in this blog post are not helpful in that scenario, but they will work if you are running the VC redist package directly (and not via the VS setup/deployment bootstrapper). I'm sorry for the hassles.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

HolgerG — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:22:39 GMT

Very useful information, thanks.

Does anyone have a list of possible return codes? I would like to install it as a prerequisite and I could need a return code if a reboot is required.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:44:56 GMT

Hi HolgerG - The return codes for the VC redist packages follow a traditional setup return code pattern, as follows:

0 = success, no reboot required

3010 = success, reboot required

any other value = failure

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

raboyd — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:47:27 GMT

Thank-you! Newbie, perhaps silly question:

What is the command to uninstall the package? I tried /x, that seemed to make it attempt to extract all files.

How do most people handle the dilemma of deciding whether to uninstall VC redist or not? Prompting may confuse the user but silently removing it may break other programs.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:29:29 GMT

Hi Raboyd - The silent uninstall would need to look something like this (as an example, I'm using the x86 package listed above in this blog post):

vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~1.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /x vcredist.msi /qn"" "

In general, your application should not attempt to uninstall the VC redistributable package as a part of your uninstall because it could be needed by other applications on the system. This recommendation holds for other redistributable programs that you might install as a part of your setup as well (such as the .NET Framework).

Also, as you say, prompting the user will likely be confusing to them, and there will be at least some of them that choose to uninstall the redistributable package and inadvertantly remove it out from under other applications on the system that need it.

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

raboyd — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:05:21 GMT

Thanks for the prompt response!

In playing around with my install, it seems that re-installing if the package is already installed does not cause a problem.

Is the preferred behavior to first check to see if it is already installed? If so, how do I determine if the package is already installed? I assume it's in the registry somewhere?

Also it seems at least on my computer that having two versions installed simultaneously does not cause a problem. For example I currently have the 2005 and 2008 redistribs installed. Is this OK?

Thanks for your help. Sorry if I'm getting a little off topic here...

Mona

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:59:58 GMT

Hi Raboyd - Ideally, an application would first check to see if the VC redist package is already installed. However, these packages were not designed to include an easy registry-based detection mechanism. I outlined a way to check for the presence of them in these blog posts:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/01/16/mailbag-how-to-detect-the-presence-of-the-vc-8-0-runtime-redistributable-package.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/01/24/updated-vc-8-0-runtime-redistributable-packages-are-included-in-visual-studio-2005-sp1.aspx

It won't hurt anything though if you make your installer always run the VC redist installer package, even if it is already installed. It will be smart enough to do a repair/re-install if it is already installed.

Also, the VS 2005 and VS 2008 versions of the VC runtime files are designed to install and run side-by-side, so there should not be any problems installing both on the same system.

Hopefully this helps!

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

Sangeeta — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:52:06 GMT

Do you have any idea about silent installation of VC++ 2008 SP1.I want to silently install VC++ 2008 SP1 along with my application.Any idea about command line used for installing VC++ 2008 SP1?

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:29:16 GMT

Hi Sangeeta - I thought I had already posted something like this, but I can't find it so I think I may have forgotten. I'll work on a post about this topic in the next couple of days.

Mailbag: How to perform a silent install of the Visual C++ 2008 redistributable packages

Aaron Stebner's WebLog — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:56:25 GMT

Question: You previously posted a list of command line switches to perform silent and unattended installations

re: Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

astebner — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:43:44 GMT

Hi Sangeeta - I've written an updated blog post that describes how to perform a silent install of the VC++ 2008 and VC++ 2008 SP1 redistributable. You can find that at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2009/03/26/9513328.aspx.