Silent Installer Guide

When adding a manifest, you need to specify how the installer runs silently. This guide covers common patterns.

Identifying the Installer Type

Right-click the installer > Properties > Details. Look for:

• InnoSetup: Mentions "Inno Setup" in the description, or leaves unins000.exe after install
• NSIS: Has an NSIS icon or mentions "Nullsoft" in properties
• MSI: File extension is .msi
• ZIP: Just an archive to extract

You can also run the installer with /? or /help to see available flags.

Common Silent Arguments

InnoSetup (most astrophotography software)

[install]
method = "inno_setup"
quiet_args = ["/VERYSILENT", "/NORESTART", "/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES"]
interactive_args = ["/NORESTART"]

/VERYSILENT hides the installer completely. /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES prevents dialog popups.

NSIS

[install]
method = "nsis"
quiet_args = ["/S"]

NSIS uses /S (capital S) for silent mode.

MSI

[install]
method = "msi"
quiet_args = ["/qn", "/norestart"]

Standard Windows Installer flags. /qn means no UI, /norestart prevents automatic reboot.

ZIP (extract only)

[install]
method = "zip"
install_dir = "{program_files}/SoftwareName"

No silent args needed — Astro-Up extracts to the target directory.

Testing Silent Install

Before submitting a manifest, test on a Windows machine:

# InnoSetup
.\setup.exe /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES

# NSIS
.\setup.exe /S

# MSI
msiexup /i installer.msi /qn /norestart

Verify the software installed correctly and check the registry for version detection.

When Silent Install Isn't Possible

Some vendors don't support silent installation. In these cases, set manual_download = true in the manifest and provide a download_page URL.