Scripting

Is it necessary to leave the application as advertised, as opposed to assigned? It sounds to me like you just want the applications assigned so that no user intervention is required to kick off the install.

To do this, all you have to do is open up your advertisement, go to the Schedule tab, and click the starburst button next to Mandatory assignments. Select Assign to the following schedule, and enter the earliest time you want the application to install. If you want it to install immediately, just leave it at its default value. You can then uncheck "Allow users to run the program" from the Interaction tab so that it's completely invisible to the end user.

I'd caution against using the "As soon as possible" option in the Mandatory assignment dialog, there are a few usability issues and no real advantages to using as soon as possible vs. a specific time and date.

I do know this can be done that way, but this is not an option.
This must be done as a batch, from the user's side. no involvement of the
SCCM admin possible, or desired.
It's for users' "self-service", when receiving a new computer, running one script before the swap,
to collect the information (apps available for install off the SMS, vs. those available AND already installed),
then running the second script, on the new PC now, to batch install all those desired, which are showing as available
to the user. The users may have as many as close to 100 little apps available, and the key requirement is to wrap the process up in a batch, so the user can trigger (running the script) and leave, instead of having to sit for half a day, clicking on the "install" for so many times. It'd be much easier to switch them to forced install, over on the SCCM side, but that's not an option, as I said.

Well, far be it for me to question the way you do things, but it just makes a lot more sense to me to make a new set of advertisements that are mandatory but point to the same programs than it does to attempt to write something that will force a hundred apps to attempt to run simultaneously. You have an architecture in place, why would you try to circumvent its primary purpose?

Also, if you're trying to use "Self service," then you should be more looking into developing an HTA or web tool to manipulate collections, rather than trying to shoehorn some batch file to locally run installations.

:) I never said it was a batch FILE. A batch, in the sense of creating a list of appID's and a round of calls for installing them. It is already done as HTA, btw. Well, a vbs with embedded dynamically producing HTA code logic
and the HTA then loads a cute actionscript3 compiled to an SWF, as an embed object, which does the user's interactive interface, with lots more that is usually involved with replacing the old PC and installing the new one.
The concern is that with forced pushes, you really have not much control over the order the things hit the target, depending on how busy the server is, which particular distribution point the client points to and what gets there first. besides, you don't know what, out of the, say 100, apps advertised, the user actually did have installed, and perhaps does not need any longer, or perhaps wants to add some at the time of replacing the laptop.
This is the user's decision, within what is available for him. And among the many users I'm concerned about, there are many cases with completely different configurations, so it is simply impossible to tell for the user and decide centrally. Aside from the sccm advertised apps, there are number of other activities covered, but that's irrelevant to what I'm looking for.
I simply need to programmatically mimic the, otherwise done with a single press of "install" button, installation of a known appID, off the SCCM.
While I send the requests for installation in batch (don't confuse with "batch file"...), or rather send the install requests from my list - array, in a specific, desired order,
the user sees a full screen HTA running a nice SWF interface, giving a feedback on what's been already done, what's installing currently and what is still pending.
No need to sit there all the time, click next, or anything. Once done, the process throws a message, then forces a reboot. And the user is all good to start using the machine at this point.