lectricpharaoh

A friend of mine works for a local college as a 3D animation teacher, and also has to perform some of the software installations and updates on the machines in the class lab. Ghost isn't a suitable solution, as some of the machines have sublty different hardware, and software licenses on the machines have to be unique. It seems you're in much the same sort of situation.

He has told me they use a scripting suite called AutoIt, which according to him, is very useful for doing the job. In fact, it was originally designed for just this sort of task. I've never used it myself, so this isn't an endorsement, but it is free and may meet your needs. For more details, clickie.

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Silent

lectricpharaoh - The program you talk about is another method of doing the same thing, but i prefer this one.

Below is some code, and also the code for the batch file:

VB.net:
'Check weather to install Google
If CheckGoogle.Checked = True Then
Dim a
a = Shell("C:/Documents and Settings/billy/Desktop/Google Toolbar/AI.cmd")

The file launch's fine remember, but the batch reports that the file cannot be found.

The batch file code: (note that the actuall file is located in the same folder as AI.cmd)
@ECHO Off
ECHO.
ECHO Installing Google Toolbar
ECHO Please Wait...
start /wait GoogleToolbarInstaller.exe /qb
ECHO Completed.
EXIT

Hope this helps you help me

Rory

It will default to the current directory, so
should just work.
You could also try
or

What is the error precisely: is it a .NET exception, or is it a standard windows error message? Ultimately, VB.NET is just calling the ShellExecute API like every other program. If it's not working, it means the path or permissions are incorrect, or windows is not correctly set up to execute that type of file.

Rory

You just posted at the same time!

Again, it's not a problem with VB! You need to specify the working directory for the command prompt (probably %SystemRoot%) as you are using relative paths in your batch file.


Arguably you should check this within your batch file rather than the launcher program, but anyway...

Silent

Your code rory was used aswell, it gave the same error. The error is a standard windows error of the file cannot be found...

The working directory can't be set that way, as each Batch file has its own folder: For example:

CD >> Program Folders >> Program.exe & AI.cmd
there is nothing but the actuall program in the cd's main dir.

Rory

Hmm, I'm still unable to see what you can do in a batch file that you can't do 100 times better in VB.NET.

Silent

Rory if you can show me an example of using the same method in VB.net i'd be happy to try it

Silent

Problems all sorted thanks to Rory.