How to silently install Microsoft Mathematics 4.0

The installation options of Microsoft Maths 4.0 are very unusual. Its seemingly designed for use in schools yet it doesn't have the ability to be silent installed. The only option for network admins is a Citrix Xendesktop or Microsoft App-V style deployment.

Through trial, error and research I was able to find a set of silent installation commands that work.



The Process

1. Download Microsoft Math 4.0 x86 from here >> http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=15702

2. Extract the contents of MSetup_x86.exe to a folder. This can be easily done with winrar

3. Create an install.cmd with notepad++ or your favourite text editor

4. Into your install.cmd add the below deployment commands.

start /wait msiexec /i MSMath_x86.msi FROMSETUP=1 ALREADYRUNNING=0 DOTNET35=1 SKIPDXINSTALL=0 SXSOFF=0 D3DOFF=0 /qn

regedit /s eula.reg

exit 0

These commands are a combination of silent install, tricking the MSI into thinking its running from setup.exe and a selection of other options. I also apply a eula.reg (as seen below) that accepts the EULA and prevents it from popping up to the end user.

You may be able to further optimize the silent install string, but the above string works perfectly from my experience.

5. Save install.cmd

6. Paste the below text into a new file named eula.reg and save it into the same folder

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Mathematics\Standalone\4.0]
"MsltAccepted"=dword:00000001

 7. Create your package and program with SCCM (or your favourite deployment technique) and trigger install.cmd


The most important part of this article are the silent install strings for MSMath_x86.msi, the other deployment options are up to you. This took me a while to find a solution to and it seems by a quick google search that many other administrators are in the same boat.

Resolving iPhone wireless dropouts with DD-WRT

I use a couple of Linksys DD-WRT based routers in my home network and have done so for a few years. I love the flexability of advanced options like radius and the reliability I recieve from these devices.

I recently began experiencing some problems with iPhone connections being unreliable, especially after the router had an uptime of over 8 hours. A reboot of the router fixed the problem but rebooting the router every day isn't my idea of a resolution.


The settings that worked

These settings are a mix of settings from around the web, since combining these I have had perfect reliability with my iPhones.

1. Login to your DD-WRT device.

2. Click the 'Wireless' tab.

3. Click the 'Advanced Settings' tab.

4. Adjust the following settings.

Beacon Interval 50

Fragmentation Interval 2304

RTS Threshold 2305

The key setting is adjusting the Beacon Interval from the default of 100 to 50. The other two settings I couldn't see any differences but they didn't negatively impact performance so I left them.

5. Click 'Save' and then 'Apply Settings'.

I tested these settings on a Linksys WRT54G running v24 SP1 Micro and a Linksys WRT150N running v24 STD and there was no negative performance impact on my other devices (laptops, iPad, etc).

The only other settings I adjusted was TX Power to 84, but that was just to cover a larger area in my home and is totally optional.

Ensure you do your own before and after performance comparisons, but as far as I can tell these settings only bring gained stability.

Enterprise deployment of the Adobe Photoshop CS6 6.0.1 security update - CVE-2012-4170

There is no denying Adobe probably have the most convoluted enterprise processes in the industry but luckily the latest CS 6.0.1 security update deployment isn't too bad at all, if you know where to look that is.

The official Adobe blog post simply mentions going to Help > Update from within Photoshop, which is OK for updating a single client but doesn't suffice for enterprise upgrades.

This update probably isn't blog worthy, but I had trouble finding both the update itself and the silent install strings for the update, so I thought it might save someone else a few minutes.



Obtaining the update

The Adobe blog post doesn't mention the update can be downloaded in a redistributable format from the Adobe support downloads page - available here http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/new.jsp

The above address is the location for all the latest Adobe network deployable updates/security fixes. You can also grab the Photoshop CS6 6.0.1 update for Windows directly from here http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5408



Silently installing the update

Again this is REALLY easy, but I saw a number of syntax errors on other blogs that complicated things.

1. Extract the Update zip file.

2. Create a install.cmd with the following text inside

start /wait AdobePatchInstaller.exe --mode=silent

Please note the "--mode=silent" has a small s, a capital S will cause this process to fail.


3. This next line is totally up to you, but I also deploy a blank file to the file system. This file allows me to easily evaluate the patch version of Photoshop when deploying future updates.

copy /Y adobecs6_13_0_1.tch c:\windows\deployment\adobecs6_13_0_1.tch

Your done! You can now deploy the install.cmd with SCCM or your favourite deployment tools. Hopefully these simple tips/references save you a few minutes.