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XP Service Pack 3 (XP SP3) command line switches
For anyone who wants to deploy XP Service Pack 3 (XP SP3) through a batch script at logon and doesn?t know or like me, can?t find the switches, here they are.

I googled numerous phrases trying to find this info anywhere but couldn?t. So, I just started executing the file, in a command line, guessing at switches. ?/help?, after extracting the contents, gave me a window with the switch information. I?ve copied and pasted that here so others can save the time and just get their work done. Since this is a copy and paste, the layout is a little malformed. I'd suggest copying and pasting the switch info into a Word or text document to read it as it appears. After the switch info, I'm posting the command line I used to install it through out my network.

---------------------------
Service Pack 3 Setup
---------------------------
AVAILABLE SWITCHES:
[/help] [/quiet] [/passive] [/norestart] [/forcerestart] [/warnrestart] [/promptrestart] [/overwriteoem] [/nobackup] [/forceappsclose] [/integrate:] [/d:] [/log:]

/help Displays this message

SETUP MODES

/quiet Quiet mode (no user interaction or display)
/passive Unattended mode (progress bar only)

RESTART OPTIONS

/norestart Do not restart when installation is complete
/forcerestart Restart after installation
/warnrestart[:] Warn and restart automatically if required (default timeout 30 seconds)
/promptrestart Prompt if restart is required

SPECIAL OPTIONS

/overwriteoem Overwrite OEM files without prompting
/nobackup Do not backup files needed for uninstall
/forceappsclose Force other programs to close when the computer shuts down
/integrate: Integrate this software update into
/d: Back up files into
/log: Create log file at

****
My Install
Command line:
O:\xpsp3\WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU /quiet /forcerestart /forceappsclose /d:d:\temp\bu /log:d:\temp\bu\xpsp3.log

What is does:
From a mapped drive "O:" and a directory named XPSP3, the service pack is executed to install without any user notification (you can detect it in Task Manager), forcing a restart, forcing any open apps to close for the restart, backing up the uninstall files to D:\Temp\bu. The last switch , "/log:..", was supposed to create a log file, but it didn't.

The 'log' switch instructs to provide which I took to mean everything including the file name because the backup switch indicates simply . Since I tested the install before deploying it I don't really care, the log was more a curiosity than anything else.

Good luck.
Posted: 05/08/2008 @ 10:32 AM (PDT)  (edited 05/08/2008 @ 10:34 AM (PDT))
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XP Service Pack 3 (XP SP3) command line switchescduncan@... | 05/08/2008 @ 10:32 AM (PDT)
Can you help me with this?piyushnasa@... | 06/24/2008 @ 07:02 PM (PDT)
Just saw this questioncduncan@... | 11/03/2008 @ 01:32 PM (PST)
How to install once expanded?cyric_74@... | 10/31/2008 @ 07:03 AM (PDT)
This is how I did itcduncan@... | 11/03/2008 @ 01:29 PM (PST)

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