The Scripting Series: Unattended Install of Visual Studio 2005 SP1 on Windows 7 x64 and Vista x64

How to install Visual Studio 2005 on Windows 7 x64 the Unattended way

1. Extract your Visual Studio installation files to c:\VS2005
2. Download Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and place it in c:\VS2005_Resources
3. Download Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista and place it in c:\VS2005_Resources
4. Create a new VS2005.ini Unattended answers file by running the following from a cmd prompt
   1. C:\vs2005\setup\setup.exe /createunattend c:\VS2005.ini
   2. Select the options you want to have installed during the unattended install and complete the wizard
      1. Keep in mind that the unattended file you create will only be usable on machines that have the exact same OS and architecture (x86 or x64)
5. Copy and paste the following into a new bat file (c:\InstallVS2005.bat):

:Variables
SET VisualStudio2005FilesPath=c:\VS2005
SET VisualStudio2005ResourcesPath=c:\VS2005_Resources</code>

echo.
echo Install Visual Studio 2005
echo -Install Prequisites
"%VisualStudio2005FilesPath%\WCU\64bitPrereq\x64\vs_bsln.exe" /Q
"%VisualStudio2005FilesPath%\WCU\DExplore\dexplore.exe" /q:a /c:"install.exe /q"

echo -Install Visual Studio 2005
"%VisualStudio2005FilesPath%\setup\setup.exe" /unattendfile "c:\VS2005.ini"

echo -Install Visual Studio 2005 SP1
"%VisualStudio2005ResourcesPath%\en_visual_Studio_2005 SP1 (VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU).exe" /q

echo -Install Visual Studio 2005 SP1 for Windows Vista
"%VisualStudio2005ResourcesPath%\en_visual_studio_2005 SP1 Vista (VS80sp1-KB932232-X86-ENU).exe" /q

Once you have done all that run the c:\InstallVS2005.bat file from a cmd prompt with Administrator priviledges. Towards the end of the initial Visual Studio 2005 install windows 7 will prompt you with a warning about Visual Studio 2005 being a an application that it has trouble running. Dismiss the warning and allow the installation to continue.

Once the bat file is finished you should have a working Visual Studio 2005 installation.