GUI vs non-GUI and Programmatic installation.

Hi,

I recently had a problem because of the way the setup.exe behaves in Office
2007.
It was admitted only highlighted because the scripting methods I was using
made a mistake but it highlights an inconsitancy that is becoming more
prevalent in installers for MS products.

I had a script running that checked for the presence of O2K7 via registry
keys. If it wasn't there then it ran a command line to install Office with an
admin file. This obviously works fine but...

A mistake in my coding meant that the install tried to run over the top of
an existing install and of course at that point setup.exe told me that it
couldn't. That wouldn't have been an issue ordinarily except it reported it
via the GUI rather than respecting the .MSP "silence" switches and just
quitting with an exit code.

It's not the only product that has caused difficulties for me in fidning
the loophole where it can no longer be programmatically handled.

I'm hoping this lonely voice might just catch the attention of someone.

It would be extremely useful for anyone that installs software in bulk form
if you could aim towards command-line needs a bit more and make sure that all
the KISS principles are in place.

Have fun,



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