Trial #5: Packaging Sibelius 7.1 Installer

1 minute read

Problem

The Sibelius installer doesn’t initially seem to have a silent install option. The usual /s & /q switches have no effect. There is also no support for the “/?” or “/h” switches.

In our environment we have a manual install process that includes running an installer, an update installer, a plugin installer, a ton of files to copy and a registry mod. to make. I want to package this as a silent install process to run from PDQ deploy and as an application in a MDT build sequence.

Solution

The Sibelius installer does in fact have a silent install option, Avid have documented this with hints for different versions. However, I’ve found that perquisites are causing restarts and prompts.

Powershell is ace at copying files (that don’t have too long filenames) and it can do registry modifications too.

One element, the Sibelius Sounds Update, looks like it will have to be done manually post deployment. The registry modification also has to be done after this update is installed.

Therefore I think it more stable to have a script that eliminates as much user interface as possible but is not silent and needs help.

My Manual script

My Quiet Script (requires follow up manual work)

To follow, subject to testing…

Pitfalls

  • The Sibelius installer has three or four pre-requisite “c++ 2008 redistributables”. These causes a user interaction and a restart so should be installed silently first in any silent installation
  • The Sibelius Sounds Update seems to be badly packaged and unresponsive to switch commands

Updated: