How To Install Visual Studio .NET on a Network Computer

This step-by-step article describes how to install Visual Studio .NET on a network computer.

Visual Studio .NET includes an administrator mode setup. This administrator mode setup facilitates installation on network computers. The administrator initially runs Setup to select which features to install on the network computer. An .ini file is created based on this selection and is then deployed by running Setup in unattend mode and by pointing to the generated .ini file. When Visual Studio .NET installation starts in unattend mode, Setup runs silently and installs the designated options. If any error occurs, Setup exits silently and reports the failure.

Requirements

Before you install Visual Studio .NET, you must complete Windows Component Update setup on the network computer. Some of the components that the Windows Component Update installs are required for Visual Studio .NET installation. Visual Studio .NET requires the following components:

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a or Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0
• Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation
• Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Web Extensions Client
• Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions Service Release 1.2
• Setup Runtime Files
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
• Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7
• Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack 3
• Microsoft .NET Framework

Visual Studio .NET unattended setup fails if any one or more of these components are not installed.

Create the .ini File for Network Installation

You must create an .ini file for network installation based on the Visual Studio .NET features that you want to install. Setup uses this .ini file to install Visual Studio .NET on the network computer. To create an .ini file for network installation, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Visual Studio .NET CD 1 or DVD, and ignore the autorun message.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Type the following command, and then click OK:
   N:\setup\Setup.exe /createunattend PathToIniFile
   For example:
   D:\setup\Setup.exe /createunattend c:\vs7_deployment.ini
4. In the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Administrator mode dialog box, click I accept the agreement to accept the end-user license agreement, type the 25-digit product key in the Product Key box, and then click Continue.
   
   Note The product key is located on the CD package.
5. Under Select items to install, select the items that you want to install on the network computer, and then click Save Settings.
6. After the .ini file is saved, click Done.

Create Network Share

Administrator Setup is designed to run from a network share instead of from a CD or a DVD. To prepare a network share for Visual Studio .NET installation, follow these steps:

1. Create a top-level folder on the server, and then name the share VS7.
   
   Note To share the installation files from a DVD, copy all the content in the DVD to this top-level folder, and then go to step 10.
2. Create a folder in the top-level folder, and then name the folder WCU.
3. Copy the contents of the Visual Studio .NET Windows Component Update CD to the WCU folder.
4. Create a folder in the top-level folder, and then name the folder VS.
5. Copy the contents of the remaining Visual Studio .NET CDs to the VS7\VS folder. If you are prompted, click Overwrite existing files.
6. Open the Setup.ini file in a text editor such as Notepad. The Setup.ini file is located in the VS folder.
7. Locate the [Baseline] section, and then change the line that starts with "DIR=" so that it appears as follows:

   [Baseline]
   DIR=..\WCU
   FileName=setup.exe

8. Save your changes, and then close the file.
9. Open the folder that contains the copied files, and then open the Setup folder.
10. Open the Setup.sdb file in a text editor such as Notepad.
11. At the end of the file, add the product key in the following format:

    [Product Key]
    <25 digit Product Key>

    The product key is located on the CD package.
12. Save the changes, and then close the file.
13. Create a network share to the VS7 folder, and then establish the appropriate security settings. The Visual Studio .NET Setup path from the network is \\ServerName\VS7\VS\Setup.exe
    
    Note During installation, Setup fails when any path and file name combination exceeds 260 characters. The maximum length of a path in Visual Studio .NET is 221 characters. Therefore, copy files to a path with less than 70 characters.

Use the .ini File to Set Up Visual Studio .NET

Before you set up Visual Studio .NET on the network computer, make sure that Visual Studio .NET can be installed on the administrator computer. To start Visual Studio .NET Setup on the network computer, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that Visual Studio .NET installation files are available on the network share with required permissions.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Type the following command, and then click OK:
   \\Computer\Share\...\setup\Setup.exe /unattendfile PathToIniFile
   For example:
   \\ComputerId\VS7\setup\setup.exe /unattendfile \\Computer\Share\vs7_deployment.ini

Installation Maintenance

You can start Visual Studio .NET Setup on a network computer with an existing installation. To do this, an administrator should run Setup in createunattend mode on a network share that has the same installation as the network computer. Changes to the feature state can then be installed on the network computer.

Make sure that Setup does not start independently on the network computer, such as from the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel. This may cause a discontinuity in the feature state. To avoid this, make sure that all changes come from running Setup with the unattend file switch.

For additional information about how to remove Visual Studio .NET in administrative mode, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: