Install PASCO Capstone license key with a command line switch (Windows)

Instructions for a network/silent administrator installation of PASCO Capstone software on Windows

**FOR CAPSTONE 2.6.0 USERS: There is currently an issue within the silent installation that reverting the software back to the trial version for users running Capstone 2.6.0. Please upgrade to version 2.6.1 if you are experiencing any issues. Capstone 2.6.1 fixes the issue that was occurring with the install shield package in version 2.6.0**

This article was designed for network administrators who wish to automate the installation of PASCO Capstone. Our software installers are created with Installshield. Installshield wraps the Windows msi in an executable that passes parameters to the msi. 

Both the InstallShield installer and the packaged msi can be controlled via command line switches. Third-party software deployment tools are not supported (ex: PDQ, Kubernetes, Ansible, Serializer etc). Please note: You must have a valid Capstone Site License to install with command line switches

Silent Installation By Directly Passing Parameters to the MSI

1. Copy the latest version of the software executable installer to a simple path on your computer with at least 200 MB of free storage, such as C:\
2. If the installer has any spaces in the name, rename the file to a simple name with no spaces, such as Setup.exe
3. Go to the Windows start menu.
4. Type cmd. (This selects the command prompt.)
5. Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT buttons simultaneously and press ENTER. (This gets one into administrator mode of the command prompt to avoid prompts for administrative privilege.)
6. Type c:\Setup.exe /s /v"/qn" ( The /s switch tells the InstallShield installer to run silently, the /v passes the parameter that follows immediately after in quotes to the msi installer. And /qn tells the msi to run with no UI. c: is the location that was specified location of the installer.
7. To install the license key (requires Capstone version 1.13 or higher)

A. You can install the Capstone license key silently along with the software with a command line switch:

PASCO_Capstone-x.y.z.w.exe /s /v"/qn LICENCEKEY=< My_Key >"

Where < My_Key > is replaced by your Capstone license key.

B. To install the license key AND disable the prompts for software updates:

PASCO_Capstone-x.y.z.w.exe /s /v"/qn LICENCEKEY=< My_Key > DISABLE_SOFTWARE_UPDATES=1"

Where < My_Key > is replaced by your Capstone license key.

If you need to extract the MSI file, then please refer to the following information on this article: https://www.pasco.com/support/knowledge-base/136

PASCO does not support Administrator/Silent installation of SPARKvue, MatchGraph! or Spectrometry software at this time. PASCO does not support the use of third-party tools to deploy our software and cannot assist with installations using third-party deployment tools.