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Mailbag: How can I create an administrative install point for Visual Studio 2005?

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Question

You previously posted instructions for how to create an administrative install point (AIP) and deploy the .NET Framework 2.0 using Group Policy. How can I create an administrative install point for Visual Studio 2005?

Answer

The following steps will allow you to create an administrative install point for Visual Studio 2005:

  1. Launch Visual Studio 2005 in administrator transform creation mode by running <Visual Studio source location>\setup\setup.exe /CreateTransform <path to transform file to create> . Note that the /CreateTransform parameter only works when passed to the setup.exe in the setup subdirectory, not the setup.exe on the root of the Visual Studio source location.
  2. Enter the product key, select the features that you want to install and the destination location and click the button to create the transform needed for the administrative install point.
  3. Run msiexec /a <path to vs_setup.msi> /L*v <path to log file> TRANSFORMS =<path to transform created in steps 1 and 2 above> TARGETDIR=<path to create the adminstrative install point at>

Once you have created an administrative install point, you can create a Group Policy object to deploy Visual Studio 2005 using machine assignment (Visual Studio does not support per-user deployment scenarios).

Alternatively, you can directly install Visual Studio 2005 from the MSI in your administrative install point by using a command line such as the following:

  • msiexec /i <path to vs_setup.msi in your administrative install point> /L*v <path to log file> TRANSFORMS =<path to transform created in steps 1 and 2 above>

These instructions are also documented in sections 3.3 and 3.4 of the Visual Studio 2005 administrator mode readme.

<update date="3/11/2006"> Updated command line to create administrative install point to be simpler. There is no need to pass the PIDKEY parameter because the product key information is contained in the transform passed in via the TRANSFORMS parameter </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2006
    I'm using the /CreateTransform to install a full version of Visual Studio 2005 with MST on Windows XP which already has its prerequisites. Everything works fine when I use it. The only thing irritating is that upon creation, it doesn’t let me change Directory. I want to install it on the D:systprodvs2005 but it only sees the C:program files….. With a .INI, the installation lets me install where I want but I never managed to get rid of the Reboots… Can I create an MST using another Directory?
    Thanks a million,
    Paul

    PS. I already tried passing the D:systprod..... path to INSTALLDIR and it didn't work.

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 18, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 28, 2007
    Is there a way to create a MST file for installing MSDN like you show here for Visual Studio?

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2007
    Hi Aaron - So there is no way to select which parts of the MSI are installed? You either install the default for the MSI or not. I am trying to have a GPO to install custom parts of MSDN to correspond with the parts of Visual Studio I am also installing. Can you actually edit the MSI itself? Thanks for your time.

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 01, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 02, 2007
    The comment has been removed