Silently installing an INF file from your Delphi application

Windows with Delphi
Windows API (94)
Windows Filesystem (41)
Windows Forms (69)
Windows Graphics (38)

Silently installing an INF file from your Delphi application

2 comments. Current rating: 4 stars

(1 votes). Leave comments and/ or rate it.

Question:

My self-written install program needs to install a 3rd party tool which comes with an .INF file. How do I call it up to install invisible ('silent install')?

Answer:

The INF file format has been around for many years at least since Windows 3 and it has many options including modifications in the registry, driver installation or date and version control. There are even free tools available to generate INF files.

Executing them from a Delphi application is no problem if you use the function shown below. Simply pass the path to the .INF file and handle of your form (use 0 if you have a console application).

uses
  ShellAPI;

function InstallINF(const PathName: string; hParent: HWND) : boolean;
var
  instance: HINST;
begin { InstallINF }
  instance := ShellExecute(
    hParent,
    PChar('open'),
    PChar('rundll32.exe'),
    PChar('setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 ' + PathName),
    nil,
    SW_HIDE);
  
  Result := instance>32
end; { InstallINF }

You don't like the formatting? Check out SourceCoder then!

Send a message to
Subject

Comments:

2008-07-02, 21:37:32 (updated: 2008-07-02, 21:48:26)

donie_A_hidayat@yahoo.com

how to silent install flash_player.msi with delphi ?

2009-10-13, 14:05:30

anonymous from Turkey

thank you maan

NEW: Optional: Register Login Email address (not necessary): Rate as	Hide my email when showing my comment. Please notify me once a day about new comments on this topic. Please provide a valid email address if you select this option, or post under a registered account.

	Show city and country Show country only Hide my location
You can mark text as 'quoted' by putting [quote] .. [/quote] around it.
Please type in the code:
Please do not post inappropriate pictures. Inappropriate pictures include pictures of minors and nudity. The owner of this web site reserves the right to delete such material. Add a picture:


	Search: