Mar
24
2008
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Silently Installing QuickBooks 2008

Author An article by Brian Reich    Comments 8 Comments

I have provided two sample batch files for silently installing QuickBooks 2008.  In order to determine the variable names and values for a QuickBooks 2008 installation I used Microsoft’s Orca tool which comes with the Windows SDK Components for Windows Installer Developers kit. The first batch file called install.bat installs QuickBooks 2008 on the local machine.  You will have to edit this file to provide your own License and Products numbers for the installation.  The second file is called deploy.exe and it uses psexec.exe to deploy the application to a remote machine on your network.  If you want to do remote deployments, you will have to edit this file to provide your own network credentials.

Download the Unattended Installation Script for QuickBooks 2008

Download Remote deployment script for QuickBooks 2008

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About the Author: Brian Reich

Brian Reich is the computer consultant from central Pennsylvania. he specializes in computer repair, tech support, and has a love-hate relationship with the Internet.

8 Comments + Add Comment

  • Les August 11, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    Thank you for making this available. If I run the unattended, it only partially installs – but no error messages.

    Database manager installs, but QB doesn’t. The files are copied over, but it doesn’t show up in Add/Remove, and if I run the executable, it errors and instructs me to do a repair.

    If I run the same msi, and manually put in the same options, it installs fine.

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks,
    Les

  • Matt February 23, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    I’m running into the same problem as Les.

    I’m trying to install Quickbooks 2009 Accounting Edition. When I do a comparison of what the install.bat installs and what a regular install put in I get a difference of 43 items. Any thoughts?

  • Lee March 4, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    You have To call the MSI with /QN otherwise quickbooks will not install unless you mess around in the MSI script. However you will likely have problems with apps once it installs… specifically ISW.

  • Richard March 6, 2009 at 11:45 am

    The only way I have been able to do this is by using the setup.exe, not the msi.

    “setup.exe” /s /v CKBOX_GDS=0 AgreeToLicense=Yes MULTIUSERINSTALL=1 QB_LICENSENUM=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxx QB_PRODUCTNUM=xxx-xxx /qn

    I use AutoIT with LanDesk to deploy. If you packaged this using autoit, you can use a ZAP file to deploy via GPO I believe.

  • Adam May 8, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    For Richards install method, approximately how long does this install take to complete? I run this and the computer thinks for a bit and then appears to do nothing (which is obviously what a silent install does), but I am unable to tell when it is completed. I watched task manager and the msiexec was up for a bit and then stopped running, but nothing else appears to be going. Thoughts?

  • Adam May 8, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    For Richards install method, approximately how long does this install take to complete? I run this and the computer thinks for a bit and then appears to do nothing (which is obviously what a silent install does), but I am unable to tell when it is completed. I watched task manager and the msiexec was up for a bit and then stopped running, but nothing else appears to be going. I let it sit for bout 5 min but the program still fails when run. Thoughts?

  • Matt February 25, 2011 at 10:19 am

    I was looking over this and I noticed that it uses the MSI to run the install. When I run your files, it doesn’t fully install the software. Do you happen to know how to make it work with the Setup.exe ? I’m using QuickBooks Small Business Accounting 2011.

  • Brian Reich February 27, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    Matt,

    Unfortunately I don’t have access to QB 2011, so I don’t really know how to answer your question. A lot of times the setup.exe is just a front-end command for the MSI install. You might be able to find out what the options might look like by running setup.exe /?