Microsoft Visual FoxPro version 9.0 offers an
administrator mode setup, which facilitates deployment to field clients. The
administrator initially runs setup to select which features will be deployed.
An .INI file is created based on this selection, and is then deployed by
running setup in unattend mode, pointing to the
generated .INI file. When run in unattend mode, setup
runs silently installing the designated options. If there are any errors, setups exits silently with failure. This allows deployment
through Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Microsoft Systems Management Server.
To
create the deployment .INI file
1. Insert the Visual
FoxPro version 9.0 CD and ignore the autorun message.
2. Choose the Start
menu and then choose Run.
3. Type the following:
n:\setup\Setup.exe /createunattend
<path to .INI file>
For example:
D:\setup\setup.exe
/createunattend c:\vfp9_deployment.ini
Before running
in createunattend mode, you must first run Windows
Component Update setup on your machine. Some of the components installed
by the update are required for Visual FoxPro setup to function.
To run
setup with the generated file on a client
1. Verify that Visual
FoxPro is available on the network (see Creating a
Network Image).
2. Choose the Start
menu and then choose Run.
3. Type the following:
\...\setup\Setup.exe
/unattendfile <path to .INI file>
For example:
\\computer\share\setup\setup.exe
/unattendfile \\computer\share\vfp9_deployment.ini
Administrator
setup is designed to run from a network image, rather than CDs. To prepare
a network image of the Visual FoxPro CD:
1. Insert Visual FoxPro version 9.0 CD into your CD-ROM or DVD drive.
2. Open the CD drive in Windows Explorer.
3. Press CTRL+A to select all, and then copy the selection to a folder of your choice.
As a result,
you will have a single folder with the content of the disk.
Setup can be
run again on a machine with an existing installation. This should be done by
the administrator running in createunattend mode on a
master machine that had the same install as the client machines. Changes to the
feature state can then be deployed to clients.
Clients should
not run setup from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel (or any other
means) on their own. This will cause a discontinuity in the feature state. All
changes should come from setup being run with an unattendfile switch.
The following
is a list of components required for Visual FoxPro 9.0. Unattended setup will
fail if any component is not installed.
· Microsoft Windows
Installer 2.0
· Setup Runtime Files
· Microsoft Data Access
Components 2.7
· Microsoft SOAP Toolkit
3.0