Silent Installation and Silent Registration

For questions regarding installation and registration of EViews.

Moderators: EViews Gareth, EViews Jason, EViews Steve, EViews Moderator

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Fri Nov 13, 2015 10:17 am

We've had this question come up a lot so I thought I would put all of our techniques for doing a silent installation and registration of EViews into a single topic.

Note: This post was recently updated for EViews 13, but the instructions also work for other versions of EViews. Simply replace the name of the EViews 13 installer below with the correct installer name for your version.

Performing a silent installation
We currently don't provide an MSI installer, only an EXE. So to perform a silent installation, you'll have to first generate a recorded "script" file by installing EViews onto a target machine once. To generate the script, run our EXE installer with these parameters:

Code: Select all

"EViews13Installer.exe" -r -f1"c:\files\script.iss"

The -r parameter puts the installer in record mode and the -f1<path> parameter specifies where to save the script. By installing EViews this way, every mouse click or text entered by you during the installation will be recorded into the script. At the end of the recording, you'll have a script file you can use to re-run our installer without any user input needed. You can "playback" the script by running the installer with these parameters:

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"EViews13Installer.exe" -s -f1"c:\files\script.iss"

The -s parameter tells the installer to run in silent mode.

EViews Licensing Issues with silent installs
Typically, our installers ask for an EViews serial number during installation in order to know how to setup EViews licensing properly on the target machine. This means that this serial number will be "recorded" into the installer script if you are in record mode. This is ideal for those of you that purchased a concurrent or an unlimited lab license because all of your users will share the single serial number (typically registered on a local EViews License server).

However, for standalone license users where each user has a different serial number, doing a silent install requires a few more steps. When EViews runs for the first time after an install, if a standalone license was entered during the installation, EViews will automatically pre-fill this serial number into the Registration dialog that appears. This is done for convenience so that our typical user does not have enter the serial number twice. But if you wish to perform multiple silent installs each with a different serial number, you will want to prevent EViews from remembering the serial number entered during installation. To do this, we provide a special checkbox on the installer dialog that asks for the serial number:
sn13.png
sn13.png (58.94 KiB) Viewed 9126 times
(this checkbox only appears when the installer is running in RECORD mode)

During the recording, make sure to UNCHECK this checkbox and proceed with the installation. Now when EViews is run for the first time on the target machine, it will not pre-fill in the serial number on the Registration dialog. This requires the user to manually enter his/her own serial number, which you can provide via an email or however you wish.

Troubleshooting Silent Install Problems
If you run into problems with the silent install method, here are a few things to check for:
1. Make sure your target client does not already have EViews installed on it. If so, our installer runs in uninstall mode.
2. Make sure your target client machine during the silent install has the same OS version as the recording machine. Also, if the target machine is a VM, make sure you recorded the install script on a similar VM and not a physical machine.
3. Make sure the silent installation is performed with elevated admin rights, otherwise, our installer won't be able to write to any protected directories, such as the "Program Files" directory.
4. Make sure you're EViews license is valid for the target system. For example, a DEMO license might work to record on a physical (non-vm) machine, but it won't work on a target VM client. Also, no single-user license will work on a Windows Server OS.

Next, verify that a manual installation of EViews on the target client works. If so, re-record the install script on that target and then compare the two install scripts to look for differences. Any differences between the two scripts could be clues as to why the initial script failed.

Turn on our installer verbose mode and specify a specific output log file by running the script with these parameters:

Code: Select all

"EViews13Installer.exe" -s -f1"c:\files\script.iss" -f2"c:\files\log.txt" -verbose
After the run, check the log file for clues as to why it failed.

Silent EViews Serial Registration for Standalone\Single-User licenses
If you installed EViews using a standalone\single-user license, the user will have to register their serial number the first time they run EViews. To prevent this, you could take an extra step and perform the serial registration for them beforehand (for EViews 8 and newer versions only). We provide a way to register a serial number using command line parameters. To silently register a serial number, call the EViews executable like this:

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EViews13.exe /registerlicense "XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX" "Name"
(the first parameter is your full EViews serial number with dashes and the second is the name you want this serial number to be registered with.)

Running this on the target machine will register the serial number and "tie" it to that machine.

EViews should now fully installed and registered.

Steve

jrock10
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:21 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby jrock10 » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:25 am

I tried to follow your instructions and I'm able to install Eviews 9 silently, but your command line switch /registerlicense doesn't work for me. It keeps giving me an error saying invalid switch. I tried running the switch using the .com file and the .exe file. Any suggestions to make this work?

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:50 am

I should've mentioned that the registerlicense switch was only added to EViews 8 & 9. It won't work for EViews 7 and older.

Here's a screenshot of what the command looks like when I run it:

RegisterLicense.png
RegisterLicense.png (24.04 KiB) Viewed 87115 times

(obviously, you'll have to provide your actual serial number here)

If you still have issues, send me an email (steve@eviews.com) and provide the following:
1. Your EViews serial number
2. The text of the DOS command you are trying to run. A screenshot of the DOS prompt will work.
3. A screenshot of the error you are getting back from EViews.
4. The build date of the copy of EViews you have installed. To get this, run EViews, then go to Help->About EViews to see the build date.
5. Finally, a link to this forum topic.

Steve

Phreeze
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:27 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby Phreeze » Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:30 am

hello, is there a way to silently install patches ? I want to distribute them in an SCCMpackage,because it takes way to long to go install them manually on 60 PCs...

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:22 am

The method I described above also works for our patch EXE files.

tcoram
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:27 pm

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby tcoram » Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:31 pm

EViews Steve wrote:The method I described above also works for our patch EXE files.


Do the patches require a .iss file as well, or will a simple "installer.exe -s" be fine?

EViews Jason
EViews Developer
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:50 pm

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Jason » Sat Apr 02, 2016 11:08 pm

The procedure for patches is exactly the same. So yes you will need to create an iss file.

uacasper
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:02 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby uacasper » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:27 pm

To be up-front, we have a 25-seat lab license. It is not concurrent or unlimited, but unlike a standalone license, it is a shared serial number for all machines. The initial post here reads to me that remembering the license number in the install script would be all that is needed, but that does not silently register them. Instead, EViews opens to the register dialog window. I am assuming the user doing the registration must be an admin, but regardless, I can't trust students to deal with that!

When I use the /registerlicense switch, it also does not register. EViews opens to the register dialog window just as if I hadn't used any switch. The "Autoregister..." button shows the information provided when recording the installation script, and does not change based on anything I provide with the /registerlicense switch. (The "invalid switch" error mentioned in another response is because the EViews GUI is trying to interpret the switch text. Using single quotes, ', instead of double quotes, ", generates a different error.)

So, I can silently deploy the software, but not silently register it. What good is that? If any kind of license should allow for silent install AND registration, it should be a lab/classroom where all the installs are automated and nobody is an admin!

Any advice?

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Fri Sep 02, 2016 1:38 pm

uacasper:

Support for the "/registerlicense" parameter was first introduced in EViews 8, around October, 2012. It wasn't available right when EViews 8 was first released.

Are you using EViews 8?

If you are, please make sure you're using a version of our installer that was created after January 15, 2014, as that was when we fixed a bug related to using /registerlicense with an 80L license.

If you need a link to the latest installer for EViews 8, send me an email at steve@eviews.com, refer to this forum post, and I'll send it to you.

If you're using EViews 9 and the /registerlicense doesn't seem to be working, please email me your serial number and your EViews 9 build date and I'll look into it for you.

Steve

uacasper
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:02 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby uacasper » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:41 am

Just a quick update...

The /registerlicense command does not work unless the current location is in the "EViews 9" installation directory, regardless of using the full path.

Thus:

Code: Select all

"%ProgramFiles%\EViews 9\EViews9.com" /registerlicense "XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX" "Name"

will NOT work unless the current location is "%programfiles%\Eviews 9".

Starting an elevated CMD prompt or running a script will not start in that location, so the user/script must first explicitly change to the EViews install location in order to register the license. I.E.

Code: Select all

cd %programfiles%
cd "eviews 9"
EViews9.com" /registerlicense "XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX" "Name"

Hope this helps the next person.

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:10 am

Ah, that is a bug with our EViews9.com proxy. This will be fixed in the next patch.

uacasper
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:02 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby uacasper » Thu Sep 08, 2016 7:54 am

Just in case it is helpful to anyone, here is a batch file that will silently install Eviews (64-bit), then silently update it, then silently register it with a standalone license number. It does require someone to pre-"record" the install and update (using the -r -f1<path> switches).

Code: Select all

@echo off
IF EXIST "%programfiles%\EViews 9\EViews9_x64.exe" GOTO:EOF

SET DeployShareUNC=\\<fileserver\share path>\EViews

:: First install EViews with a recorded installer script
SET InstallerName=EViews9Installer(64-bit).exe
"%DeployShareUNC%\%InstallerName%" -s -f1%DeployShareUNC%\eviews9.iss
>nul timeout 2
CALL :_function

:: Next install the update with a recorded installer script
SET InstallerName=EViews9x64Patch_090216.exe
"%DeployShareUNC%\%InstallerName%" -s -f1%DeployShareUNC%\eviews9update.iss
>nul timeout 2
CALL :_function

:: Finally, register EViews to this machine
cd "%programfiles%\EViews 9\"
EViews9_x64.com /registerlicense "XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX" "name"

EXIT /B %ErrorLevel%

:: A function to wait for the installer to finish as START /WAIT doesn't work with these installers
:_function
:_loop
>nul timeout 3
for /f %%T in ('tasklist.exe /FI "IMAGENAME eq %InstallerName%"') DO (
   Set FOUND=0
   IF "%%~T"=="%InstallerName:~0,25%" SET FOUND=1
)
If %FOUND%==1 GOTO :_loop
EXIT /B 0

Sunilh
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:14 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby Sunilh » Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:56 am

I tried this installation process on MDT and it did not work.
Anything else needs to be added if silently installing via MDT?

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
Posts: 788
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:00 pm
Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby EViews Steve » Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:26 am

Before attempting to use with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, did you make sure you can get the silent installation to work using a manual method (just opening a DOS prompt on the target machine and running the specified installer command)? I believe confirming this first will help with whatever issue you're having with MDT.

Another thing to be aware of is that make sure EViews is not already installed on the target system when you try our silent installation method. Our installer will attempt to uninstall EViews if it detects that it's already on the target system and so you'll see different dialogs appear (which will require a different set of recorded responses from the ISS file).

Once you've confirmed that the silent installation method is working, then you should be able to replicate it in your MDT environment (just a guess here, I have no knowledge of how MDT works). Others have been able to perform automatic deployments of EViews using an elevated login script that checks for EViews and if not found, performs the silent installation.

Steve

MartinsKlisans
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2022 4:40 am

Re: Silent Installation and Silent Registration

Postby MartinsKlisans » Tue Oct 18, 2022 2:06 am

I have problem with Eviews 13 silent installation. I did everything as described, but install log is giving error ResultCode=-3. I recorded the installation on the same computer. Do you have same suggestion?


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