Hello everyone,

Is there a silent installer option for Windows? I've tried the /s option to no avail and it doesn't seem to work at all. The closest thing I found to documentation on a silent install is this snippet in the HQueue12 faq:


houdini-X.Y.ZZZ-win64-vc9.exe /S /MainApp=Yes /InstallDir=H:\houdini_distros\hfs.windows-x86_64
/ApprenticeLicensing=No /DesktopIcon=No /FileAssociations=No /HoudiniServer=No
/HQueueServer=No /HQueueClient=No /IndustryFileAssociations=No /LicenseServer=No
/Registry=No /StartMenu=No


Unfortunately this did not work and was still interactive when I ran it. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I'm interested in the same question.

If anyone is still interested in this… For some odd reason, can't seem to pull up the options in H16 via the command line from the installer.
Tried:
–help
–?
/help
/?

Regardless, the options from my older deployment scripts in Windows are still working. Mine looks like this:
..\houdini-16.0.504.20-win64-vc14.exe /S /AcceptEula=yes /LicenseServer=Yes /DesktopIcon=No /FileAssociations=Yes /HoudiniServer=Yes /EngineUnity=Yes /EngineMaya=Yes /EngineUnreal=Yes /HQueueServer=No /HQueueClient=No /IndustryFileAssociations=Yes /InstallDir="\Houdini 16.0.504.20" /LicenseServer=Yes /ForceLicenseServer=Yes /MainApp=Yes /Registry=Yes

Of course, any of the options above can be turned on or off.

Thanks for the script. I've got this working by running this through Thinkbox Deadline, however it still pops up with a dialog saying “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?”. I'd like to be install Houdini without the need for user input (so I could do it over night for example). Do you know of a way round this? Is it a permissions issue?

The dialog is part of Windows' User Account Control (UAC) feature. The reason the dialog is shown is because the Houdini installer requires administrator rights in order to install. There are a number of ways to work around the UAC dialog, and which is the best solution will depend on your particular use case. As a suggestion, try running the installer from a process that is already running as an administrator. For example, a Windows Service that is running as an administrator.

I just want to add a warning to take computer security seriously. Before you try to bypass the UAC dialog, you should understand why it exists, and what risks there are in trying to get rid of it.

Hey Christopher,

Thanks for your response. I'm not entirely sure what a Windows Service would be.. Is there any (Houdini) documentation on this?
What is the recommended workflow for deploying software and build updates across computers on a Windows network?

Cheers,
Mike

As far as I know, there is no Houdini documentation about automated deployment. Automatically deploying software to many machines is not something I am very knowledgeable about. SideFX support may be able to help you more.