If you’ve ever tried to push out a silent QuickBooks installation to a computer, you probably know its not supported by Intuit. Nor can you just extract the MSI and add parameters for licensing and install directory. It’s darn near impossible to do without some sort of automation script such as AutoIT Script. I’ve tried using an MSI editor in the past and didn’t get very far because there were some missing properties.
Today I found a post on a fairly new blog called VirtualAppPack. The article has good step-by-step instructions how to create a transform file and adding the missing licensing properties. The only thing I would add to his post is not to expect an installation to complete if you add the ‘/qb’ parameter to your MSIEXEC command. For some reason or another, it doesn’t do a full install of QuickBooks with that command. But if you use ‘/qn’, it will perform a full install.
Thanks, you are a life savor. I was having that problem and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t finish installing.
No problem Mike. Glad to be of assistance.
I’ll look at updating my documentation on the blog this week. Originally I used the /qb for testing purposes.
Sounds good. Great article by the way.
“The only thing I would add to his post is not to expect an installation to complete if you add the ‘/qb’ parameter to your MSIEXEC command. For some reason or another, it doesn’t do a full install of QuickBooks with that command. But if you use ‘/qn’, it will perform a full install.”
I thought I was going crazy until I read this! Thanks a million for clearing this up!
Glad to help. Thanks for the feedback!
I realize this post is really old, but it is EXACTLY what I’m looking for! QuickBooks is such a pain! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Can we get an updated link to the article? Doesn’t load for me.
Thanks!
Sorry I don’t see that website is functional any longer. I’ll look into making a post with what I have from my notes.
I just wasted over an hour chatting with Intuit for them to tell me they literally don’t know a single installation switch of their own software.
Yeah I had to use some MSI tools and monitor the install to find the ones they use. I don’t think they officially support them outside of their own process, but they are there and they work.
Yep, Our firm was once so proud that we had hired a former Intuit QB support tech and I remarked “Then we know that he doesn’t know how to support Quickbooks”. In 20 years and to date dozens of calls to try to get support from them, I have amassed a grand total of ZERO cases in which they were able to provide any assistance. Now they’ll just hang up on you while they are asking the 100 different questions to “verify” your account. Like all of us, if we get any answers it is going to be from forums like this one with experienced QB users.