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

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

Aaron Stebner — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:20:36 GMT

Hi Martin - That is a valid way of installing the VC++ redistributable too. The command lines in this blog post are intended for scenarios where a developer wants to automate the installation in a single step instead of unpacking in a separate step.

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

Martin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:49:58 GMT

Why not just unpack it with 7zip, and do a single "msiexec /i vcredist.msi" ?

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

Nitin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:34:19 GMT

Yes, the new installer does not has a double wrapper. So the command used for double wrapper installation does not work on some systems. The command for this should be the one used for single wrapper Exe i.e.

/q:a /c:"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn /norestart"

It's quite surprising to see that Microsoft keeps changing the format of VC 2005 redist EXE's - sometimes they are posted with double wrapper; while sometimes without the double wrapper. They shoould stick to one format!

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

zzz — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:59:07 GMT

theres a new version.

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

it doesn't appear to have the double wrapper so i think the comman lines from the first post should work with these:

blogs.msdn.com/.../715755.aspx

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

Aaron Stebner — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:37:10 GMT

Hi Michel - I've seen setup programs that chain in the VC++ Redistributable and they are able to correctly detect whether or not the install succeeds by examining the exit code. I think this might just be something in how the ERRORLEVEL value is being assigned or something like that. I'm not an expert in batch scripting, so I'm not sure what to suggest to solve this though. Is it an option for you to install the VC++ Redistributable via a setup chainer as opposed to a batch script?

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

Michel — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:07:28 GMT

I checked the %ERRORLEVEL% variable but it is always '0' even if the installtion failed. I have a system where vcredist 2008 x86 install is failing always due to some registry issues (error 1603). The MSI log also says failure, but running this vcredist_x86.exe in silent mode always return '0'. Any pointers?

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

Aaron Stebner — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:33:57 GMT

Hi Michel - Yes, the VC++ redistributable should return valid return codes. You can use the %ERRORLEVEL% variable in a cmd prompt to check the return code. If you do a search for that variable, you can find several different examples of how to do that.

You can run the install command line and it should do a new install if the VC++ redistributable is not yet installed or a repair if it is already installed.

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

Michel — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:17:52 GMT

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for informative post. Couple of questions:

1.) Does installing this VC redist actually return valid exit code? It seems to me that it is always returning exist code 0. How can we print reurn code of running this exe in silent mode on command prompt?

2.) Is there any separate switch option of running this vcredist exe in 'repair' mode in case it is already installed on system? or using same options always and it would automatically run in 'repair' mode upon detecting it already installed on system?

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

Aaron Stebner — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:50:07 GMT

Hi StuckAgain and Joost van Zoest - It doesn't look like the VC++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable MFC Security Update has an EXE inside the main vcredist_x86.exe. As a result, the command line would look something like this:

vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn /l*v %temp%\vcredist_log.txt"

Unfortunately, the names appear to change from release to release, so you'll have to extract the vcredist_x86.exe and check the exact contents to figure out the command line each time. I'm sorry for the hassles with that naming. :-(

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

Joost van Zoest — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:49:18 GMT

For the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package MFC Security Update (x86) the command line arguments should be:

/q:a /c:"VCREDI~1.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn

Why is Microsoft changing the number in the VCREDI~.EXE all the time?