Performing the Required Pre-Start Checks

Before you start using the program and following the steps described in this tutorial you need to check a few points explained below. It's really important to check and understand these points to be able to use EMCO Remote Installer successfully.

1. Check the edition of Remote Installer you use
EMCO Remote Installer is available in two editions: Free (freeware edition) and Professional (commercial edition). The functionality differences between the Free and Professional editions are explained on the Compare Editions page.

2. Check if your network environment is configured to meet the requirements
To deploy software remotely, you need to use a Windows account that has administrative rights on remote PCs. Also, the standard Windows networking services should be started on remote PCs and the corresponding network ports should be opened. It's recommended to check the list of technical requirements for the local and remote PCs to ensure that your network environment is properly configured. If your network environment doesn't satisfy the requirements, remote operations will fail. In such cases, you need to check the Execution Results and the Log views for details and follow the provided instructions to configure your network environment properly.

3. Make sure that the package to be deployed works silently
Remote Installer allows you to automatically deploy software packages on multiple remote PCs across a network. To make this possible, you need to have installation packages that can be deployed silently, i.e. without interaction with a user. Such packages should not require a user to enter any data or select installation options, so they need to be preconfigured after the installation scenario.

All MSI packages support silent deployment, but if you have an installation in the EXE format, you need to contact its vendor to find out how to install it silently. Different installations require different approaches to activate the silent installation mode: in some cases you need to specify the silent installation command-line switches, in other cases you need to record and specify an installation scenario. If an EXE installation doesn't support the silent installation mode, you can convert it into a silent MSI package using EMCO MSI Package Builder.

If you need to install, uninstall or repair an installation in the EXE format, you should test its silent deployment locally before deploying it using Remote Installer. Just run the installation manually in the silent mode and if the deployment is completed successfully, specify the same deployment options in Remote Installer.