What is a silent install?

A silent install executes the installer from the command line without requiring any UI-based interaction. All of the necessary input is either read from a specified file or passed in on the command line.

What’s the use case?

An excellent example would be an IT manager who must deploy an application to a large number of machines when having physical access to said machines would be problematic or too time-consuming.

How does it work?

In order to use our silent installer, you need to generate an appropriate configuration file by executing the installer from the command prompt with the SAVEINF flag and the destination file for the settings. This must be done with administrator permissions.

install_fc_hotfolder.exe /SAVEINF="C:\path\to\hfsettings\settings.inf"

This will generate a configuration file that can then be used to configure a silent install.

How do I execute a silent install?

In order to execute a silent install, you must first generate a settings file as described above. Once that is done, you would then copy the installer and the generated file to the machine where you would like to perform the silent install. Then, you would execute the installer from the command line as you would any other application. Next, you must have the flag /VERYSILENT to suppress all dialogues. Finally, in order to import the settings, you must use the /LOADINF flag. This must be done with administrator level permissions install_fc_hotfolder.exe /VERYSILENT /ALLUSERS /LOADINF="C:\path\to\hfsettings\settings.inf"

Why would you choose to do a silent install?

The silent install is appropriate for any situation where you do not have access to the system’s GUI, where you have a standardized deployment, or where you just don’t like clicking a lot of buttons.

What OS do we support?

The silent installer is only supported by our Windows installer.