Silent installs or push deployments

X-Win32’s installer allows the license key to be specified in these push deployments so that your thousands of desktops can use X-Win32 without further configuration.

X-Win32 supports silent installations and push deployments (typically performed with robust tools such as Microsof’s Systems Management Server or Emco’s Remote Deployment Kit. Push deployments can be used to easily install X-Win32 on thousands of desktops in a large organization.

NOTE: Before 2012, Installing the license key in the installer is only supported for Floating Licenses since Node-Locked Licenses require user interaction for activation.

Node-locked licenses in 2019 and later

Version 2019 has a command line application which will allow for a nodelocked license to be installed from the command line. Using a batch script a user can install both X-Win32 and the license provided that the system is not behind a proxy server.

Please use the following command to register a license from the command line:

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\StarNet\X-Win32 19\activate.exe" /qn node-locked license

Floating Licenses in 2011 and Later

Starting in 2011, a license server is required to run a floating license. Documentation for license server installation as well as msi installation can be found here

msiexec /i “X-Win32 2012.msi” /qn

X-Win32 7.1, 8, 9, and 2010

X-Win32 7.1 and X-Win32 8 allow the license key to be specified in the SERIAL property of the installer. There are several ways to specify the value of the SERIAL property, including passing it to msiexec on the command line (see examples below), using Orca to edit the MSI and specify the license key directly in the SERIAL property in the property table, or using a third party tool (e.g. Microsoft’s SMS). Note that StarNet cannot provide support for third party installation tools; instead, you should contact the vendor of the tool for assistance and support in using their tool.

In X-Win32 8 and later it may be easier to simply copy the License.config file from a machine that has the license installed to all other machines after the X-Win32 MSI is push deployed. The License.config file is XML-based (see example below) and can even be created by hand. The License.config file simply needs to be placed in the same directory as xwin32.exe.

X-Win32 8 msiexec example

Note that the /qn parameter to msiexec tells it to not display the user interface at all and to proceed with default values for all options (this will install all fonts and translations, which take a minimal amount of additional disk space). Also note that the license key should not have any line breaks in it when it is pasted into the command prompt window and it should be wrapped in quotation marks as shown below.

msiexec /i “X-Win32 8.msi” /qn SERIAL=”MII*******************************************************************
[… X-Win32 8 Floating License keys are around 1000 characters long …]

**************************************************************************”

X-Win32 7.1 msiexec example

msiexec SERIAL=”12345-12345-12345-12345” /qn /i “X-Win32 7.1.msi”