Silent Installation

This section discussess silent installation of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on Windows 32-bit platform. It is intended for:

System Administrators deploying Java Plug-in and the JRE on multiple PCs in Intranet without user interaction
Companies having products requiring the JRE. The JRE can be silently installed with their product.

The Silent Installation section has the following topics:

Introduction
Installation in Silent Mode
Uninstallation in Silent Mode
Creating a Log File

Introduction

Java^TM SE Runtime Environment (JRE) installations are built using Microsoft Window Installer (MSI) 2.0 technology. MSI contains built-in support for silent or unattended installations. This document tells how to silently install the JRE using the .exe that launches the MSI installation.

Installation in Silent Mode

In Java SE 6 The Windows offline installation command has the same syntax as the Windows Installation. The command is as follows:

 <jre>.exe   [/lang=<language ID>] /s [ADDLOCAL=jrecore[,extra][,other_US] | ALL] 
      		[IEXPLORER=1] [MOZILLA=1] [INSTALLDIR=<drive>:\<install_path>] 
             [REBOOT=Suppress]

where

<jre>.exe is the single executable installer for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
/lang=<language ID>, if used, sets the localized language for the installer (see language IDs)
ADDLOCAL, if used, is either jrecore[,extra][,other_US] or ALL
IEXPLORER=1, if used, indicates that the Plug-in should be registered with the Internet Explorer browser
MOZILLA=1 indicates that the Plug-in should be registered with Mozilla 1.1 and later and Netscape browsers (for releases prior to 5.0, see note above)
INSTALLDIR, if used, specifies the drive and path of the installation
REBOOT=Suppress, if used, indicates that if locked files are encountered the computer should not be rebooted
If ADDLOCAL=ALL is used, then all the features will be installed.
If ADDLOCAL=jrecore[,extra][,other_US]can specify the following options:
- jrecore indicates the core of the JRE is installed
- extra (optional) indicates additional Fonts, Colors, and Soundbank is installed
- other (optional) indicates locale-specific .jar files will be installed.
If ADDLOCAL is not used, then only the following configuration is installed:
- jrecore will be installed
- extra will not be installed
- other will be installed only if localization support, other than English, is installed.
If INSTALLDIR is not specified, the installation will go into C:\Program Files\java\jre1.6.0 (default location).

Note

The command is case sensitive and there must be no spaces in the features listed with ADDLOCAL.

Installation Configurations

Example 1

Suppose the JRE installer is jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe and you want to install the following configuration:

Perform a Windows Installation
Install the JRE core, additional fonts, colors, and Soundbank
Register the Plug-in with Netscape 7 and Mozilla 1.3

The command to install the above mentioned configuration is as follows:

jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe /s ADDLOCAL=jrecore,extra MOZILLA=1

Example 2

Suppose the JRE installer is jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe and you want to install the following configuration:

Perform a Windows Offline Installation and install the JRE on D drive at java\jre
Have all features of the JRE installed
Register the Plug-in with Internet Explorer

The command to install the above mentioned configuration is as follows:

jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe /s ADDLOCAL=ALL IEXPLORER=1 INSTALLDIR=D:\java\jre"

Note

To keep the MS-DOS window open, until the installation of JRE is complete use the start /w command as follows:

start /w jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe /s ADDLOCAL=jrecore,extra MOZILLA=1

Uninstallation in Silent Mode

This is the command line for uninstalling in silent mode for Implementation-Version n₁.n₂.n₃_n₄n₅:

msiexec.exe /qn /x {3248F0A8-6813-11D6-A77B-00B0D0n₁n₂n₃n₄n₅0}

Notes

This command can be run from anywhere.
The msiexec.exe executable is located in the windows system directory.
The REBOOT=Suppress option, mentioned above under installation, may also be used with the uninstall command.
For more information on version formats, see Appendix 2: Sun-Supported Specification-Version and Implementation-Version Formats.

Example for version 1.6.0

msiexec.exe /qn /x {3248F0A8-6813-11D6-A77B-00B0D0160000}

Example for version 1.6.0_02

msiexec.exe /qn /x {3248F0A8-6813-11D6-A77B-00B0D0160020}

Creating a Log File

Log file can be used to verify if a installation or uninstallation succeeded. To create a log file describing the installation or uninstallation append /L C:\<path>setup.log to the install or uninstall command and scroll to the end of the log file to verify.

Installation Example

The following is an example for installation:

jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe /s /L C:\<path>setup.log

The above command causes the log to be written to the setup.log file.

Uninstallation Example

The following is an example for uninstalling:

msiexec.exe /qn /x {3248F0A8-6813-11D6-A77B-00B0D0160000} /L C:\<path>setup.log