Performing an unattended or silent installation of a application that doesn’t come packaged in an MSI or executable installation program can be real pain, which was precicely the case with Macromedia AuthorWare Web Player. The Internet Explorer plug-in automatically downloads and installs into the user’s browser when a site requests it provided the user has sufficient rights to install browser plug-ins. Of course if manage a network with any amount of proficiency you’re probably not letting your users install their own software.  Silently installing AuthorWare Web Player for Internet Explorer is a three-step process:

  1. Download and extract the AuthorWare plug-in’s CAB file from Adobe. Most compression utilities (Winzip, Winrar, etc.) will extract CAB files.
  2. Install the INF included in theAuthorWare package: 
    rundll32 setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 0 %BASE_PATH%\awswax.inf
  3. Register the AuthorWare ActiveX control: 
    regsvr32 /s %SystemRoot%\system32\Macromed\AUTHORWA\awswax.ocx

I have provided a batch file which automatically performs steps two and three via the rundll32 and regsvr32 commands.  In order to use the batch file, you must edit the file and specify the location of the AuthorWare source by changing the value of the variable BASE_PATH.

Download Macromedia Authorware Silent Installation Script