How organizations might want to install the program and you don't

Tarjei99
Zotero seems to be written for people who are allowed to be their own computer administrators. In many organizations this is simply not on, because that is an open invitition for malware, viruses, etc to infect the computer.

I'm now creating am installation kit in Microsoft Endpoint Manager (more or less known as SCCM) for our users (since they have asked).

That is when I discover that this software is not friendly. Friendly software will allow us to have a scripted installation which does not bother the user with unnecessary details.

What do I mean by "not friendly" ? I try to discover if there is a way of installing without involving the user. I try "Zotero-5.0.96.3_setup.exe /?" and it starts to install. This is not what I want.

And it suddenly dawned on me that GPRS can be broken if Zotero is used to store ordinary information about people.

I want a way of installing the program which does not involve user input until they try to use the program. if there are choices to make, I need to make those choices on the user's behalf before the user even tries to install the program.
  • dstillman
    This isn't something we can advise on — we don't know anything about SCCM or similar. Zotero is based on Firefox, and the same techniques should generally work (though the current version of Zotero may not support all recent advances in Firefox for that). We also offer a ZIP version you can use if that's easier — just use win32-zip for the platform in the URL.
  • JeremyAtBates
    Its not a matter of advising on SCCM, we are asking for silent install parameters. You should be able to do something like zotero.exe /silent from the command line.
  • JeremyAtBates
    the silent switch is /s fyi
  • Brettski_99
    edited August 22, 2024
    I typically install software for all users (never single user install)

    With either 6.0.36 (x86) and 7.0.2 (x64) the desktop icon would always appear the Silent Installation

    Zotero-7.0.2_x64_setup.exe /ini=config.ini /SILENT does not work

    config.ini had the following
    [Install]
    DesktopShortcut=false

    My mistake checking this tonight, and I verified the config.ini file never worked I just added a line in the install script after to remove the shortcut desktop icon if it was found

    :: Remove desktop link from all users if found
    if exist "%PUBLIC%\Desktop\Zotero.lnk" del "%PUBLIC%\Desktop\Zotero.lnk"

    I have verified I was never able to successfully automate the uninstall, as always if running

    :: Kill the Zotero process if running
    tasklist /SVC /FI "imagename eq zotero.exe"
    if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 taskkill /F /IM zotero.exe /T
    ::
    Silent Uninstallation 6.0.36 (x86)
    start /wait "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Zotero\uninstall\helper.exe" /s

    Silent Uninstallation 7.0.2 (x64)
    start /wait "%ProgramFiles%\Zotero\uninstall\helper.exe" /s

    Neither uninstall would work for me as shown above? Any ideas?

    In testing after a manual uninstall the computer must be restarted before the software can be installed again. Tempted to add a "shutdown /r /f ..." to the script as I was not able to have the uninstall script reboot the pc either.

    One of the very few software's I could not complete this task,.,

  • akuhnert1962
    Silent install works with /S and likewise for the uninstall.


    Zotero-7.0.5_x64_setup.exe /S
    "%ProgramFiles%\Zotero\uninstall\helper.exe" /S

    This is the second consecutive app that required me to overcome the habit of using the lowercase /s
  • dstillman
    @akuhnert1962: In our testing, lowercase /s works fine.
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