The QuickField installer is based on the Microsoft Windows Installer technology.
This document contains the following sections:
How to install QuickField
Running setup
QuickField password
Modification, repair, and removal of QuickField
Multiple QuickField versions
Administrative installation
QuickField can be supplied on a CD, or packed in ZIP-archive. Depending on the format, do the following:
The Autorun window displays a tree-style menu containing, among others, the Install QuickField group of items including:
| Single-user QuickField. | Single license: Installs the standalone version of QuickField and the hardware protection driver on this computer. See more details in Single-user QuickField installation. |
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| Network: workstation. | Multiple license: Installs the workstation component of QuickField on this computer. See more details in Network: workstation. |
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| Network: license server. | Multiple license: Installs the QuickField license server on this computer. See more details in Network: license server. |
In the menu, choose the item(s) appropriate for the QuickField license you have purchased.
Remember: Installation of QuickField always requires administrator privileges.
More information about licensing can be found in Licensing and Hardware Protection in QuickField Professional.
To see an item's description, single-click the item. You will see the description at the bottom of the window.
To execute the command, double-click the item or click the Run button.
This is the case when the hardware protection key cannot be used over the network. So, it should be attached to the computer QuickField runs on. In such case QuickField installation always includes the installation of the hardware protection driver. If the driver installer asks you to reboot the system, do it.
After the installation attach the protection key to your computer and wait for the notification message that the device is detected and ready to go. After that, QuickField is ready to use.
Note: Sometimes, in order to correctly detect the device for the first time, you might need to scan for hardware changes using Windows Device Manager.
This is the case when the hardware protection key is attached to one of the computers on the LAN playing the role of QuickField License Server. The rest of the machines running QuickField act as clients.
Run QuickField installation on every QuickField workstation clicking Network: workstation.
Install the hardware protection key driver and the Sentinel Security Server software on the computer that will play the role of QuickField License Server. To do this, insert the CD into the server computer, and choose Network: license server.
If the installer asks you to reboot the system, do it. Then attach the protection key to the server computer and wait for the notification message that the device is detected and ready to go. After that, all QuickField workstations on the network are ready to use QuickField.
First of all, Setup offers to view the license agreement. To continue the installation, you must accept its conditions checking I accept the license agreement. That activates the Install and the Advanced buttons. We strongly recommend to choose Install which automatically installs all components of QuickField in the default folder.
Still, if you want to change the installation folder, or, for some reason, skip installation of individual components, choose Advanced. The installer will first prompt you to select the installation folder for QuickField and its help system. Secondly, it will display the tree of QuickField components. To skip installation of a component, click the down arrow to the left of the component's name and choose Entire feature will be unavailable. Having finished with the tree click Install to begin the installation process.
Choosing the installation folder for QuickField, it is useful to keep in mind the following:
The installer might ask you to restart the computer. In addition, if you have other programs that use Sentinel dongles (for example, another version of QuickField), Setup might also suggest to update the protection driver. We strongly recommend you to agree.
Before invoking QuickField you have to attach the hardware protection key. For the single-user license the key should be attached to the same computer. For the network license, you attach the key to the computer playing the License Server role and check that Sentinel Protection Server (a Windows Service) is running on it. For more information, see Licensing and Hardware Protection in QuickField Professional.
When a user runs QuickField for the first time he/she is asked for the password - the unique string of 16 latin letters provided by the QuickField supplier. QuickField stores the correctly entered password in the registry using it for all subsequent runs of the program by this user. However, extending the QuickField configuration by, for example, purchasing additional QuickField modules implies change of the password. To enter the new password you should close all QuickField documents and choose Password in the Edit menu.
There is a way for several users and/or workstations to enter the password only once. It takes installing QuickField from the image of Administrative installation prepared by the system administrator. In such case, the password the administrator stored in the image is automatically supplied to the QuickField installer making QuickField ready to run without prompts for password.
When you upgrade to a newer version of QuickField in the same configuration, you can continue to use the password from the old version.
You cannot start QuickField for the first time using it only as the Automation server (for example, from LabelMover or automation examples). In this case, the password prompt does not appear and the program might behave unpredictably. To avoid this, we recommend that you run QuickField in interactive mode immediately after the installation.
As with other applications, you can always add or remove the installed components, restore a corrupt configuration, or completely remove QuickField from your computer using Control Panel.
If you install several QuickField versions on your computer all of them remain operational. You can even run them simultaneously. Remember, however, that every time QuickField starts in interactive mode it registers itself as an automation server and as the program opening files with QuickField-specific extensions. In particular, any program using QuickField as an automation server (eg, LabelMover) will use the latest registered version, i.e. the version that was launched in interactive mode last.
Note: On Windows with User Account Control enabled, to register one or another QuickField copy as an automation server, you should invoke it as Administrator (Run as administrator).
Removing any of the installed QuickField copies can affect the state of the remaining QuickField copies on the same computer. For a complete recovery we recommend to re-run the QuickField setup program in recovery mode. For this, it is enough to find QuickField in the list of installed programs in Control Panel and choose Repair from the menu.
Being an administrator of a network and planning to deploy a multiple license of QuickField at several workstations you may find it useful to pre-create the QuickField image for administrative installation. In such case, the process of deploying QuickField over the network will include the following steps:
The QuickField License server is one of the network computers with attached QuickField hardware protection key(s) that runs the Sentinel Security Server software as a Windows service.
This guide assumes that the QuickField License server runs on Windows. On the use of Unix for the server protection, visit Thales group.
Deployment of license servers is described here.
The image of the administrative installation is the QuickField distribution kit of the special kind prepared and configured for installation onto workstations in your LAN. The image presets some parameter values for future workstation installations. In turn, the QuickField installer does not suggest the end user, that uses the image installing QuickField on a workstation, to supply the preset values. So, after installing from the administrative image the user gets ready to launch the product.
In our case, preparing the administrative installation image the administrator can specify the address of the QuickField License server and the user password. That prevents the end users from entering this information during the post-administrative installation of QuickField on a workstation.
To form the image of your administrative installation, navigate to the QuickField folder on the distribution disk and execute the following command:
msiexec.exe /a QuickFieldProfessional.msi
Administrative Installation Wizard will first show the screen with introductory information and ask to enter the full path to the destination folder for the image. Specify either a local path or a UNC network address (e.g., \\myserver\E\elc_ \ or C:\temp\).
On the next screen, Administrative Installation Wizard asks you to enter the network address(-es) of the license server(s) and the QuickField password. All fields are optional.
The license server is the computer with attached hardware protection key running the Sentinel Security Server software. The security server address can be entered in various ways: a computer name in the local area network (eg, MyServer), a qualified domain computer name (eg, mycompany.myserver.com), an IP-address (e.g., 192.168.1.30). You can enter up to three addresses of QuickField security servers. They will be checked one after another.
You might also find it convenient to specify the 16-character QuickField password to free users from having to enter it on their computers. Presetting the password in the administrative image gives two advantages: a) QuickField users will not have to enter the password themselves; and b) installation from the administrative image will associate the password with all QuickField users on the workstation.
Having entered the server address and the password, click Next completing the preparation of the administrative image in the specified location.
The QuickField installation image prepared by the administrator contains several folders with the files necessary for the installation. The root directory of the image file contains QuickFieldProfessional.msi. The following sample line would start the installation from the prepared administrative image:
msiexec /passive /l*v QuickFieldInstallation.log /package "QuickFieldProfessional.msi"
See the MSDN site for more information on msiexec.
Keep in mind that workstation installation of QuickField from an administrative image, as all other kinds of QuickField installations, requires the administrator's privileges.