Installing a software seems easy. Just run the setup file, agree to license agreement, select destination location to install, confirm program’s shortcut location, create desktop and tray icon, and finally install. It looked like many steps are involved but we usually just ignore all those and continue clicking next until the setup completes. Installing on one computer is not a problem but what if I am required to install on hundreds of computers? Am I going to go to each computer and do the steps over and over again? Of course not!
There are hidden command line switches in most installer or setup which I can use to bypass all those confirmation message boxes. Some software developer will include the command line switches in its documentation but some don’t. There is a way I know that can sniff and find the silent switch for most setup file.
Universal Silent Switch Finder is a little program that can automatically determine which silent switches can be used with a setup file. All you need to do is just load the setup file with USSF and it can tell what installer is being used to pack the files and the command line switches.
If you’re still unsure of what I am talking about, I’ll do a test here. Let’s say I want to find the silent switches for the setup file hdtune_255.exe because I don’t want to keep on hitting the Next button as I need to install it on 20 computers.
1. Download the Universal Silent Switch Finder from the link at the end of this article and run it.
2. Click the > button which is at the same line as File and look for hdtune_255.exe.
3. Once loaded, it’ll take a few seconds to analyze the setup file and will give me the available silent command line switches. As you can see, USSF is able to tell that hdtune_255.exe is packed using Inno Setup package and I can use the command “hdtune_255.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-” to silently install HD Tune without going through the install wizard.
Basically, Universal Silent Switch Finder uses PeID (Helper.bin) to identify the installer type and reports available switches accordingly. Instead of us checking what is the installer being used and trying to find information on them, we can just use USSF.
[ Download Universal Silent Switch Finder ]
Hi Raymond,
I have downloaded Windows XP SP3 2011 version from a torrent site and all the softwares inside it has an extension of .silent . For example: “”Mummy Maze Deluxe.Silent”" followed by a Reg Key file . Anyway I don’t what is this software used for. But I saw the same for Adobe page maker also as “Adobe PageMaker 6.5.Silent”" which generally will have a size of more than 100 MB for installation of the total software. Whereas this file size is just 7,690 KB and it works perfect. Can you please explain or guide me such softwares (latest versions) available on net or not ?
Esse foi o único tutorial em que achei um link válido pro Universal Silent Switch Finder!
Valeu pela ajuda!
Abre um tópico no baboo e no clubedohardware!
Abraço
Hy,
the freedownloadmanager 3.0 have an fXXXX softwareupdate on it, and i dont like it, but the ussf dont show the switches of it ? can you take a look ?
btw. Can you make an forum to enhanced developing the ussf ?
best regards
Blacky
hOLA QUE TAL BUENOS DIAS QUIERO VER SI PUEDEN AYUDARME TENGO 6 LINEAS DE TELMEX EN MI CONMUTADOR PERO YA DI DE BAJA 3 ENTONCES CUANDO TOMO UNA LINEA ME DICE QUE NO HAY POR FALTA DE PAGO ENTONCES LAS QUIERO QUITAR ESAS 3 LINEAS DEL CONMUTADOR COMO LE PUEDO HACER MI CONMUTADOR ES UN PANASONIC EMSS 336 SALUDOS
Boa noite
adorei o Ussf.ajuda imenso.se importa que espalhe a informacao ? vejo muito forum sobre o mesmo assunto so que este Seu vale nota 10.
no entanto precisava da sua ajuda para o seguinte.caso de programas que nao sejam identificados pelo ussf
tem forma de me ajudar nisso?tipo algum forum ou mesmo algum tutorial bacana que crie hidden silent command lines tao simples como o ussf?
Thank you!!! Great tool!!!!
suberb tool, thank you
This program works great. However, it would be extra nice if it could somehow scan adobe setup files (namely Setup.exe from Photoshop CS3) in order to find all of the available switches. I want to install silently with a progress bar only…but can only install silently. :(
Excelente Post!.. hoy apenas conozcon tu website y ya quiero leer todo lo que has publicado.Saludos.
Tnkx realy its good tips
Thank you so much, this is very useful!
One of the coolest find of this week Raymond. Quite a geeky tool, IMO.
sorry Rymond but how can i know the command to silently install the prog ??
thx for tips!!
Hi Raymond …
This is great… It helps to save time during installations …
As always, You have very interesting news …
Gr8 tip Raymond! I guess using this s/w we can find command switches for different s/w n integrate them into Windows to create a Windows unattended CD.
Thanks Ray ! not many people will understand the concept of deployment , but as a Senior IT manager , i really appreciate it
Now i can find out the switches and give it to my sub-ordinates ( engineers ) to deploy it