Automate the unattended installation of an online installer, offline
installer, or Package Manager using the command line interface (CLI).
Unattended mode is not fully silent. Status dialogs appear during the installation process,
but you do not need to interact with them. You can use this mode when installing from a
script or the command line.
An online installer is a lightweight executable containing no packages
in itself, but installs a product by downloading the necessary packages from the
internet. An offline installer contains the complete set of packages
needed for the product, which are bundled into a one-time download. Since offline
installers contain the complete contents of software, it typically takes longer to
download.
Complete the following steps to automate the unattended installation of an online installer,
offline installer, or Package Manager.

Note
This process supports Package
Manager 19.6 and later. For more information on how to automate Package Manager
installation for previous versions, see this KnowledgeBase article.
- Navigate to ni.com/downloads and search for the product you want to install.
If you are installing Package Manager, navigate to the Package Manager download page.
- Select the product version, edition, and driver software you need, if applicable.
- Determine the installer type you need and complete the corresponding steps to download and
run the installer.
Installer Type |
Steps to Download and Install |
Online

Note
-
Installers of this type always download as an
.exe and are typically under
10MB.
-
There
are products that do not offer an online installer
option.
|
-
Click
Download if an online
installer is available.
-
Ensure the
installer is an executable.
-
Run Command
Prompt as an administrator and pass the following
command and flags.
start /wait "name of installer.exe" --passive --accept-eulas --prevent-reboot
|
Offline

Note
Installers of this type can download as a larger
.exe,
.iso, or .zip
file.
|
-
Download an
offline installer in one of the following ways.
-
Click
Individual Offline
Installers if available.
-
Select one of the offline installer options.

Note
The
higher version is a patch.
-
Click
Download.
-
Wait
until the installer finishes downloading before
completing the next step.
-
Click
the title of the latest version of the product you
are installing.
-
Click
the download link to download your offline
installer.
-
Proceed once the installer has finished
downloading.
-
Run Command
Prompt as an administrator and change to the
directory in which you downloaded your installer
using the cd command.
For
example:
cd "C:\Users\lvadmin\downloads"
-
Pass the
following commands and arguments.
start /wait "name of installer.exe" --passive --accept-eulas --prevent-reboot
|
Package Manager |
- Download either the latest version or a specific
version of Package Manager.
- Click Download to
download an online installer that always installs
the latest version of Package Manager.
- Click Individual Offline
Installers to download an offline
installer for a specific version of Package
Manager.
- Run Command Prompt as an administrator and pass the
following command and flags.
start /wait "name of installer.exe" --passive --accept-eulas --prevent-reboot
|
- Pass the following command to verify the installation was successful: echo
%errorlevel%.

Note
A return code of 0 indicates that you successfully
installed the package, and a return code of -125071
indicates that you installed the package but are required to reboot your
machine. For all other return codes, visit ni.com/support.
Troubleshooting
If the steps above fail, you may be using a format of the
installer that is no longer supported. Go to ni.com/downloads to find the updated format of the installer. Download
the installer again and retry the steps above.