Mailbag: How to perform a silent install of the Visual C++ 2008 redistributable packages

Question:

You previously posted a list of command line switches to perform silent and unattended installations of the Visual C++ 2005 runtime redistributable packages.  How can I perform silent and unattended installations of the Visual C++ 2008 runtime redistributable packages?

Answer:

The Visual C++ 2008 redistributable packages (vcredist_x86.exe, vcredist_x64.exe and vcredist_ia64.exe) support the following command line installation options.

The same command lines are valid for the VC++ 2008 redistributable packages and the VC++ 2008 SP1 redistributable packages.

The examples below use the file named vcredist_x86.exe, but you can substitute the 64-bit versions of the EXEs with equivalent command lines to achieve the same behavior for them as well. 

Unattended install

This option will run setup and display a progress dialog but requires no user interaction.

<full path>\vcredist_x86.exe /qb

For example, if you download vcredist_x86.exe to a folder named c:\vc2008redist, then the command line would look like this:

c:\vc2008redist\vcredist_x86.exe /qb

Unattended install with no cancel button

This option is the same as the previous option, except that the user will not have the option to press cancel during installation.

<full path>\vcredist_x86.exe /qb!

For example, if you download vcredist_x86.exe to a folder named c:\vc2008redist, then the command line would look like this:

c:\vc2008redist\vcredist_x86.exe /qb!

Silent install

This option will suppress all UI during installation.

<full path>\vcredist_x86.exe /q

For example, if you download vcredist_x86.exe to a folder named c:\vc2008redist, then the command line would look like this:

c:\vc2008redist\vcredist_x86.exe /q

Related links:

<update date="7/7/2009"> Added information to indicate that you must provide the full path to the file vcredist_x86.exe when running the silent install command lines or they will display UI. </update>