Scripting Windows Live 2009/2011

The Windows Live Essentials suite comes bundled with various applications, such as Messenger, Mail, Writer, Toolbar, etc etc.  No suppose you need to script this install.  Well, it’s easy!  That is, it’s easy if you just want intall ALL of the applications.  But what if you only need to install Messenger?  Or Writer?  Or both?  Unfortunately, Microsoft hadn’t published anything publically yet on how to achieve this, so I had to contact PSS to get the information I needed.  Below are instructions for solely installing Messenger, but I’ll list the switches for the other applications.

1. Download the WLSetup
   • Windows Live 2009 can be downloaded from http://g.live.com/1rewlive3/en/wlsetup-all.exe
   • Windows Live Essentials 2011 (which is only available for Windows 7 and/or Vista!) can be downloaded from http://g.live.com/1rewlive4-all/en/wlsetup-all.exe
2. Install Messenger only by creating a scripted install that triggers WLSetup.exe /AppSelect:Messenger

Additional switches are as follows:

• AppSelect:[ProductID] or ![ProductID]
• log:log_location
• NOToolbarCEIP (to not opt into Toolbar CEIP)
• NOhomepage (to not set home page defaults)
• Nolaunch (blocks all applications from running automatically after your installation is complete)
• NOMU (to opt the computer into Microsoft Update)
• nosearch (to not set search defaults)
• q (for a silent/unattended install)