Run a silent installation

When you purchase a volume license for Adobe Creative Suite 2.0, Adobe provides an option that allows you to run a silent installation (that is, an installation with preselected options and no interface) on Windows or Mac OS X. In a silent installation, a custom installer runs the installers for each product in the suite by using command-line installation tools built into the operating system. To run a silent installation, you must create an XML file for the custom installer.

Create an installer XML file

The Adobe Creative Suite custom installer is driven by information provided in an XML file. This XML file describes the products you are installing, the location to which you are installing the products, and their serialization information.

To create an XML file for a silent installation:

1. Using a text editor (for example, Notepad or TextEdit ), copy and paste the following text into a new, plain text document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<AdobeInstallerConfiguration version="1.0">

<InstallerInfo platform="win" silentMode="1" targetVolume="C:\" targetPath="Program Files\Adobe\" />

<InstallerInfo platform="mac" targetVolume="/" />

<ProductInfo serial="0000-0000-0000-0000-0000-0000" licensedUserName="Adobe User" licensedUserCompany="Adobe Systems, Inc." />

<Manifest>

<Product name="Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe ImageReady CS2" selected="1" />

<Product name="Adobe Illustrator CS2" selected="1" />

<Product name="Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional" selected="1" />

<Product name="Adobe GoLive CS2" selected="1" />

<Product name="Adobe Version Cue CS2" selected="1" />

<Product name="Adobe InDesign CS2" selected="1" />

</Manifest>

</AdobeInstallerConfiguration>

2. Replace the serial number, user name, and company name with the appropriate information for your installation. Be sure to enter the valid serial number for your volume license. If the serial number in the XML file is invalid, the installer will prompt you for a serial number. If the user name or company name is missing, the installer will prompt you for that information. Some special characters, such as ampersand, that you may use in licensedUserName or licensedUserCompany need to be escaped or expanded to create a valid XML file. For example, for "Dog & Pony", you should enter "Dog & Pony". By default, the installer installs Adobe Creative Suite 2 in the C:/Program Files/Adobe folder on Windows or the /Applications folder on Mac OS X. Specify which applications to install. Leave the value set to "1" to install an application; change the value to "0" (zero) if you don?t want to install it. By default, all applications are installed; if you delete a product name from the XML file, that product will be installed.

Note: Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Adobe GoLive CS2 are included only with the Premium Edition. These products won't be installed in the Standard Edition, even if the value is set to "1".

3. Save the file to the desktop, name it "AdobeInstallerConfiguration.xml" (without quotation marks), and then close it.

4. Check the validity of the XML file by opening the file in your browser. Most browsers can parse XML and will flag any errors.

Run a silent installation

Use the following procedures to run a silent installation of Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 in Windows or Mac OS X.

To run a silent installation in Windows:

1. Insert the Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 CD 1 in your CD-ROM drive. Hold down the Shift key to disable Autoplay.

2. Copy the Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 folder to the desktop.

3. Insert each of the remaining Adobe Creative Suite CDs and copy the folders for each product to the Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 folder on the desktop.

4. Move the AdobeInstallerConfiguration.xml file you created in the previous section of this document to the Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 folder.

5. Choose Start > Run.

6. In the Out box, type the following text exactly as it appears (including quotation marks, spaces, and capitalization), replacing " [User Name] " with the name of the user account that you used to log in to the computer:

"C:\Documents and Settings\ [User Name] \Desktop\Adobe Creative Suite 2.0\Setup.exe" -installerConfig "AdobeInstallerConfiguration.xml"

Another thing to note by doing individual installations. you'll lose the ability to get inventory data from add/remove programs that shows "Creative Suite" and instead will see each app listed out there. That's just one more thing to have to remember when running numbers.

The best way to redeploy this app is to do each individual piece as it's own MSI, and then distribute all of the pieces together. Most of the apps are an easy repackage with a few exceptions (photoshop, illustrator) and they have been posted on this site.

I have Windows XP Service Pack 1 on a Compaq nc6000 computer. I have a service agreement with Adobe. I exhausted their technical resources, followed their technical documents, changed hard disks, changed created new administrators and was never able to load the CS2 Suite.