Note that there must be no space between the /f1 switch and the file name. The /f1filename switch allows you to specify a fully-qualified alternate name for the setup.iss file. Hence, for an InstallShield application, you want to provide both the /s and the /sms switches. Luckily, there is another switch, /sms, which will cause the installer to pause until the installation completes. This makes it useless for scripting purposes. Unfortunately, the installer will fork a separate process and exit, meaning it will return immediately even if you run it under start /wait. This will perform an unattended installation. Once you have a setup.iss file, run the installer with the /s (“silent”) option. Simply copy setup.iss to the same directory as the installer executable. This file will include all of your responses to the InstallShield dialogs, allowing you to perform unattended installations as if you were giving the same answers again. This will create a setup.iss file and place it in the C:\WINDOWS directory (yes, really). Proceed through the dialogs and complete the installation.
Run the installer with the /r (“record”) switch. Some applications ship with such a file, but if yours does not, you can use the graphical installer itself to create one.
To perform a silent installation, you need an InstallShield “answer file”, customarily named setup.iss. The installer itself is invariably named setup.exe.
Installers created by InstallShield recognize the /r, /s, /sms, /f1, and /f2 switches. InstallShield is one of the oldest and most widely used application packaging systems.