"Silent" installations and updates |
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"Silent" installations and updates |
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If you manage a large number of computers and you want to install and configure ActiveExit XP on each of them in the same way, you may simplify your work by configuring ActiveExit only on one such computer, and then distributing its files and protection settings to other workstations, using the "silent" install capability of ActiveExit. Here is a possible scenario of such a process:
1. Select one of the computers as the "main" one. Install ActiveExit on it, as usual, and run its configuration utility. Before you change any settings, choose the Save To - File command from its menu, navigate to the folder where you have installed ActiveExit, and enter the following file name to save the settings: AutoLoad.aexit This will make ActiveExit save its settings to this file rather than to local computer, and this file will later be used to configure other computers in the same way as the "main" one. It's important to name the file AutoLoad.aexit, and to place it in the installation folder of ActiveExit (such as C:\Program Files\ActiveExit XP), otherwise the procedure described below may not work.
2. Now use the configuration utility of ActiveExit to set up the desired settings. Press the Apply button to activate the settings. If something needs to be changed, adjust the settings and press the Apply button again to activate the changes. You can close the configuration utility, if you want to, and then run it again to continue setting it up.
3. When you are satisfied with the way ActiveExit operates on the "main" computer, prepare the files that need to be distributed to other computers to make ActiveExit work on them in the same way as on the "main" computer. First, decide on the location to place the files to be distributed to other computers. If your computers are connected into a network, you can designate a shared folder as the place from which to distribute the files to other computers. (Make sure that other computers have at least the read access to the shared folder.) We will assume that this is the case and the path to the shared folder is \\server\share\aexit. If your computers are not networked, you may use a removable drive or a floppy disk to distribute the files to other computers.
4. Use Windows Explorer or some other file management tool you have to copy the following files from the installation folder of ActiveExit (such as C:\Program Files\ActiveExit XP) to the shared folder \\server\share\aexit :
| For ActiveExit XP Edition: | For ActiveExit x64 Edition: |
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Note that this set of files does NOT include the User's Guide or other documentation files, nor does it include the configuration utility of ActiveExit (Active-Exit.exe or Active-Exit64.exe), because such files are only needed to set up the settings, (and you do that on the "main" computer), they are not needed for ActiveExit to actually operate on other computers.
4a. (Optional) The silent installation utility (see below) does not report its status to the user, instead it writes such information into its log file. The location of the log file is specified in the file Setup.ini, and it is initially set to the folder from which you have installed ActiveExit. If you want the log file to be created in a different folder (to which the client computers must have the "write" access), then open the file Setup.ini with Notepad and modify its LogFile entry to point to the desired location of the log file.
5. Now repeat the following steps for each other computer where you want ActiveExit to be installed:
5a. Login to the computer as an administrator or a power user. (You can login directly or use a remote administration tool such as Remote Desktop of Windows XP.
5b. Run the following command to perform the "silent" installation on that computer:
For ActiveExit XP Edition:
For ActiveExit x64 Edition:
If the computer does not have ActiveExit installed on it, then this command will copy the files from the shared folder into the local folder on the computer's hard drive, and will activate ActiveExit with the settings stored in the file AutoLoad.aexit. If it detects that there is a copy of ActiveExit already installed on this computer, and the version number of the installed copy is the same, it will not copy the executable files, it will only copy the AutoLoad.aexit file with the updated settings. If, however, the version number of the existing copy is different, then it will attempt to replace the executable files already installed on the hard drive with the files from the shared folder. If some of the files are in use and cannot be replaced immediately, it will copy the new files into a temporary folder on the hard drive, and postpone the update until the computer is restarted. Until that happens, the existing installation of ActiveExit will continue to operate, with the old settings.
5c. Wait a few seconds for the "silent install" command described above to finish, then open the log file specified by the LogFile entry of the Setup.ini file and check the reported status of the installation.
6. Repeat the steps 5a-5c for each other computer where you want ActiveExit to be installed.
If later on you want to change some setting of ActiveExit, first make the changes on the "main" computer, described in step 1 above. Make sure the changes are saved into the file AutoLoad.aexit, then copy the updated AutoLoad.aexit file to the shared folder, and repeat the steps 5a-5c on each computer, to make them update the settings file.
Similarly, if you want to upgrade to a new version of ActiveExit, do it on the "main" computer first (by running the installation with the new version and following the instructions displayed on the screen). After the update is completed successfully on the main computer, copy the updated set of files to the shared folder, as described in step 4, and repeat the steps 5a-5c on each client computer, to perform "silent update" on them. Be sure to review the User's Guide of the updated version of ActiveExit for any updated information regarding the upgrade!
If you want to remove ActiveExit from the client computer "silently" without any messages displayed to the user, then login to the computer as an administrator or a "power user" and execute the following command:
For ActiveExit XP Edition:
For ActiveExit x64 Edition:
This command will deactivate ActiveExit, delete the files from its installation folder that are not currently in use, and it will also schedule the removal of the remaining files to happen automatically next time the computer is restarted.
The "silent install" command described in step 5b reports the result of its work by writing records into the log file (see step 4a above). The log file has a simple text format as follows:
[date and time of the record]
Code=(the numeric code of the result)
Description=(the textual description of the result)
The following result codes may be reported:
| Code | Explanation |
| 0 | ActiveExit has been successfully installed on this computer. No further action is required. |
| 1 | ActiveExit has been successfully prepared for an update. The update will finish after the computer has been restarted. |
| 2 | Error: could not locate the Setup.ini file in the folder from which the Setup.exe was run. Make sure you have copied all the required files as described in step 4 above. |
| 3 | Error: could not load information from the Setup.ini file. This can be a result of direct editing of the file with a text editor and not preserving its format. Repeat the step 4 described above to restore the original version of this file. |
| 4 | Error: could not continue the installation because your user account does not have enough privileges. Login as an administrator or a "power user" and try again. |
| 5 | Error: could not continue the installation because the local Group Policy restricts running the installation utility. |
| 6 | Error: could not continue the installation because the LicenseAccepted entry in the Setup.ini file is missing or incorrect. You may need to reinstall ActiveExit on the "main" computer and then repeat the steps 1-6 described above. |
| 7 | Error: could not continue the installation because the existing older version of ActiveExit must be uninstalled first. Uninstall the existing installation of ActiveExit from this computer, then repeat the steps 5a-5c again. |
| 8 | Error: could not continue the installation because some of the required files are missing. Repeat the steps 4-5 described above. |
| 9 | Error: could not create the destination directory on the hard drive. Login as an administrator or a "power user" and try again. |
| 10 | Error: could not copy some files from the shared folder to the destination folder. This could be a result of a network problem. Correct the problem and then try again. |
| 11 | Error: could not delete some files that are no longer needed in the destination folder. Login as an administrator or a "power user" and try again. |
| 12 | Error: could not complete the installation, some items were not created or updated. Login as an administrator or a "power user" and try again. |
| 13 | Error: could not install because the version of Windows running on the computer is not supported by ActiveExit. |
| 14 | Error: could not continue because the previous installation has not finished yet. Restart the computer to complete the pending update, then try again. |
| 15 | Error: could not continue because the previous uninstall has not finished yet. Restart the computer to complete the pending uninstall, then try again. |
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