Command-line switches for Windows Setup

 

By Ed Bott

 

You can use the Windows Setup program, Setup.exe, to install Windows on a new PC, upgrade an existing PC, or install a Windows 10 feature update manually.

 

Normally, you just click the Setup icon to get started, but you have the option to add command-line switches from the Run box or a Command Prompt window. These are most helpful if you’re upgrading several machines at once and you want to avoid interruptions where Setup stops and demands that you (or your users) choose an option.

 

Here are three helpful switches:

 

/quiet This suppresses all the progress screens, even those that appear if a problem forces Setup to roll back to the previous version.

 

/showoobe Add the Full or None switch to tell Setup whether you want the user to go through the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) portion at the end of the installation or not. Try Setup /showoobe None to accept all defaults and go straight to sign-in after Setup is complete.

 

/auto Use this switch with any of these three options: Upgrade; DataOnly; Clean. For example, setup /auto upgrade shows progress screens, keeps programs and data, automatically accepts the license agreement, and skips the OOBE portion.