+6
Considering for Future Release

Generic Client Installer

Richard Chase 6 years ago updated by gilly 1 year ago 12

I'd like the ability to download and install a generic client installer, that asks me for information during the install, such as name, organization and location etc.. Often when I'm doing a multiple computer deployment, I have to download a bunch of the same installer file with the different information and then make sure I install the right exe on the right computer. If i had a generic one, i could run it, punch in the info on the spot and only need a single installer. Would be super helpful. I doubt this would be very difficult, I'm guessing somewhere in the exe is a configuration file that has this information programmed when its downloaded from the site. 

Considering for Future Release

Make this information scriptable would be helpful too. For example the ability to add Organization to a generic installer via a script/command would be significantly useful. Especially with the need to code sign custom branded installers. This is not a process that is helpful to repeat over and over. 

Is it possible to open up the installer, or see where it extracts in temp files and see if there's a config file in there that could be customized? Going to try that now actually. 

But yeah for the above, if you could add flags to the install like "screenconnectclient.exe /company:companyname /name:nameofpc etc... or have it in a simple txt or xml file. 

I've gone through most of the files in the Mac installer and haven't found anything corresponding to the Organization I've defined for the installer but its got to be in there somewhere.....

I can open the windows installer in Winrar and it shows a bunch of files, including a .exe.config file however when i try to extract them, I get an archive corrupt error. There are files created in appdata/local/temp when you run the base exe but its just a setup.msi file. 

Experience is similar on OSX when trying to unpack the installer. Can't for the life of me find where it records that info though.

In the setup.msi that shows up in windows temp, can also be opened by winrar, and the same files, plus some more show up including an app.config file and some client.resources files. But again, corrupt archive when trying to extract. 

+1

I think I might have found it - if it's where I think it is it's surrounded by a long has making it not really editable but what I am thinking is to create a generic installer with a very unique Organization name then running a sed command after the install to swap the name to the Organization I want - we'll see what that does

That's not a bad idea actually, just make the company "unbranded" or something like that and same with the "name" and "location" if you use that, then just edit it after the fact. However what happens if you install the client on more than one computer before you edit, do they just show up as duplicates? Might be hard to tell if you're doing a lot and dont want to update on your instance until after you're done. Although you could leave the "use pc name" instead of custom name and then if you have names documented then you could do it that way. Really good work around actually until they come up with something. 

7-zip can open both the original installer and the setup.msi however neither ".config" files have any specific info in them related to customer, instance, name etc... just some general options. However when you run the base .exe, a folder in temp files appears but there's no files in it...or there are files being created in there but they are run and deleted so fast, you cant see them. WOuld need to be able to step into with the installer to see if there are files there. 

It would also be nice to be able to install via command line and use switches for settings such as which group the device belongs to.  This would be handy when deploying via RMM.  example. c:\connectwise.exe /group "Company A"