Using AutoIt to Install AutoIt

[edwick]

I have a slightly odd, un-Google-able question on how to use AutoIt to install AutoIt.

Background: we're setting up Windows Server 2012 virtual machines using Cloudify and want to have AutoIt in our toolbox to automate installing software packages that don't support a command-line/unattended install process. We can use Cloudify's script plugin to execute a PowerShell script, which can execute anything in a known location. Cloudify does not seem to support running an arbitrary .exe on a Windows machine directly.

Someone at some point uploaded the AutoIt3 .exe to our software repos, so I can get it to a known location on our VMs during setup. The problem is that it's a software package that doesn't support a command-line/unattended install process. Trying to Google for "automating AutoIt install" turns up lots and lots of useful tutorials on writing AutoIt scripts to automate installers, but if there is anything in there about automating AutoIt's install itself it's getting drowned out in the false positives.

Writing the AutoIt script to install AutoIt isn't the problem -- its button clicks look like they can be automated as well as anything else. The problem is how exactly to get that script to run if I'm using it to install AutoIt.

The three alternatives I can think of:

1. Upload the AutoIt3 .zip file to our repos and use that instead, and just copy the AutoIt3.exe to somewhere in the PATH. Then any subsequent VM setup steps can use it to run .au3 scripts directly.

2. Same as alternative 1, but run the .exe against an .au3 script that automates the AutoIt install.

3. Compile the AutoIt script to an .exe (possibly including the AutoIt3 installer .exe), upload the .exe to our software repo, and then download/execute that big .exe from PowerShell.

#1 is probably the easiest solution as long as the installer doesn't do any Windows Voodoo that will make running the .exe challenging; it also makes it relatively simple for others to add to new VM setups. It doesn't LOOK like there would be an issue with that, but I'd want to be sure. #2 is OK, but I'm not fond of the idea of installing the same .exe twice. #3 is probably the most self-contained solution and the least kludge-y, but it feels like there should be a more efficient way to do that. All 3 have the problem of process-related drag caused by getting something new uploaded to the repos, but I don't think there's any way around that.

I tried some Windows Installer Ninja tricks to automate an executable installer, but none of them seemed to work on the AutoIt3 installer.

So, is there a preferred "AutoIt"-y way to do this? Is there some command line switchery that will let me just run the installer .exe in an unattended mode? Or an alternative I'm not seeing? Or, if you happen to speak both Cloudify and AutoIt, a different way to accomplish installing AutoIt on a new VM?

[BrewManNH]

I use AutoIt on a thumb drive all the time, no need to install it if you don't want to.

[JLogan3o13]

What about packaging AutoIt to an MSI and then using the PS script to deploy that silently? That is what I typically do in a enterprise environment.

[AdamUL]

Use "/S" to silently install AutoIt.  The switch is case sensitive.  The installer was created with NSIS (Nullsoft scriptable install system).  Here are the command line switches.

 

Adam