Resume batch script after computer restart

Question

I have a bunch of old machines running Windows 2000 Pro and IE 5.0 which I want to upgrade to IE 6 with Silverlight. I downloaded the IE6 and Silverlight installers from Microsoft's web sites and fortunately they both have command line options to allow them to run in "silent mode".

I put the two commands in a DOS batch script and ran it, but the IE6 installer requires makes an automatic computer restart so the question is how to resume the script and run the 2nd command (install Silverlight).

My batch file is very simple right now:

ie6setup.exe /Q
silverlight.exe /q

From what I know, batch files can't resume execution after restarting the computer. Is there a way to make them do that? of is there another way to accomplish what I need.

Thank you

Answer 1

You could put the second command in a exclusive batch file, and add an entry to regedit to execute this batch file automatically upon Windows' start, making silverlight be executed after the computer restarts.

Have you heard of msconfig? On some systems the regedit PATH you are looking for is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

But you may want to check that. If you want to make a batch file to write that key on the registry, you probably should take a look at this tutorial.

Answer 2

If you do the IE6 installation with the command ie6setup.exe /q /r:n then it won't reboot automatically (see this page for details). Then theoretically you could install SilverLight immediately, and then reboot afterwards; but there is a chance that the SL install will refuse due to the need of a reboot, but it won't hurt to try it...