Windows Live Essentials with SCCM

cokecan

cokecan

cokecan

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Hi Guys

Have a bit of a strange issue here that I'm hoping someone can help with. We're trying to build a W7 image to be deployed on all student desktop machines. The image must include various programs such as Office, Endnote etc.

The students use Microsoft's SkyDrive online storage and so need part of Windows Live Essentials installed (WLSync as well as Messenger and Mail).

To test with I've created a new software distribution package for WLM 2011, customized which features of WLM to install via a command line switch and advertised it to our test PC so it's dragged down and installed silently when the PC is turned on.

Strangely the only way I can get it to install silently is to use the /q switch with the Run option set to silent and also the box ticked that says "allow users to interact with this program".

To me that just seems crazy as all windows are hidden, it's being installed with the silent switch and it has elevated permissions? if I don't tick that box the installer runs but just hangs and doesn't install anything. It also means I can't add this package into the task sequence for the W7 image unless it's unticked.

I've tried running it in the task sequence with the option unticked but it just hangs and errors after 20 minutes (the time I've specified in the package that the installer is allowed to run). When booting the machine after and you can see that it's installed Silverlight and created a Windows Live folder but it's empty.

I know that it should take about 10 minutes tops to install this app so why is it hanging in the task sequence and why does it hang when advertised unless I allow user interaction?

Sorry for the long post but I hope someone can help :)

Cheers guys
 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943595

If you really can't do it, I think each 'module' has a MSI included within the installer - you could extract these and install each of them.

Just as a side note too - you could 'chain' these in your package so they each run one after the other. Alternatively, do the OSD then push a separate task sequence to all new desktop machines. However, personally I would prefer to keep it all in the OSD task sequence.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys

coldzero, I need go back and check the eventviewer logs and also the logs from the task sequence to see if it shows anything. Going by previous errors in the task sequence log file from the advertised package before I added it into the task sequence, they'll probably be generic error codes that aren't thrown by SCCM but rather error codes it's interpreted from the app. I.e. nothing helpful :(

brainchylde, Thanks for the link. I'm gonna have a good read over that tomorrow as it looks like theres loads more info about the WL installer I never knew.

PAz, running it from the command line on a desktop using the exact same switch doesn't display a single thing, it's totally silent and hidden. All I get is the process running (visible in task manager) for about 7/8 minutes, then when it's done everything is installed. That's why I don't get why I need to have the "allow user interaction" option ticked in SCCM when there's clearly no user interaction involved?
 
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I've never used SCCM but usign SCE i've deployed movie maker (obviously another part of windows live essentials 2011) using these arguments with the wlsetup.exe:

/q /NoLaunch /NoToolbarCEIP /NoHomepage /NoSearch /AppSelect:Writer,MovieMaker

If you use that but change the AppSelect to whatever part it is you need (don't know the specific name for what you want sorry) does it work?

I can run that either via the SCE way of deploying an install or manually via the cmd prompt if i copy wlsetup.exe to the local machine and both work
 
mrbios, thats exactly the kind of switch I'm using on the wlsetup.exe. We're just specifying the few apps we want using /AppSelect: and using the /q switch to make it a silent install. it works perfectly when run on a local machine and use cmd to run it, but it will only work in SCCM if I tick "allow user interaction"...of course doing this means I can't add it to the task sequence for the w7 install :(

I'm going to try and check over the log files today and have a read of the links posted above
 
are you using these as well: /NoLaunch /NoToolbarCEIP /NoHomepage /NoSearch ?

As i think they had to be included else it wouldn't work for me, each one confirms or denys each stage of the setup so that user interaction isn't required, /q only appeared to hide the installer rather than run it in a proper silent install manner.

Sorry if that's what you meant you were doing though, but you only mentioned the other two switches :)
 
yes, that's what I ment by the /q switch :)

this is what we're using: wlsetup-all.exe /q /NOToolbarCEIP /NOHomepage /NOLaunch /NOSearch /AppSelect:silverlight,mail,messenger,wlsync
 
CokeCan - I've had a thought - are you definitely using the offline installer? If you are using the online installer, you will have problems if you are running this during the OSD task sequence, particularly if you have a proxy which requires authentication.

You will also need the pre-reqs installed as part of your task sequence - the online installer would check for these, but the offline installer requires you to install these manually.
 
Just a quick update to this thread...I've got the problem sorted :)

Basically I think my switch statement was wrong after brainchylde pointed out that Silverlight wasn't a valid selector (confirmed by the link he posted too) and also noticed that /NOToolbarCEIP wasn't valid either, I re-wrote it out like this:

wlsetup-all.exe /q /NOHomepage /NOLaunch /NOSearch AppSelect:mail,messenger,wlsync

Just done a test in my task sequence and it installed with no problem.

I think I was looking at the problem for too long and missed the obvious bits :p

Thanks for all you're help guys
 
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