Editing Installation (computer programs) (section)

==Types==
===Custom installation===
A custom installation allows the installer to choose to select components or parts that are required to be installed.
This is sometimes preferred as opposed to installing the full suite of software components. Some situations that require
the need for a custom install might be where only the basic components are required which are smaller in size instead of the
full components which may take up too much hard drive space.

===Attended installation===
On [[Windows]] systems, this is the most common form of installation. An installation process usually needs a user who attend it to make choices, such as accepting or declining an [[end-user license agreement]] (EULA), specifying preferences such as the installation location, supplying passwords or assisting in [[product activation]]. In graphical environments, installers that offer a [[wizard (software)|wizard-based interface]] are common. Attended installers may ask users to help mitigate the errors. For instance, if the disk in which the computer program is being installed was full, the installer may ask the user to specify another target path or clear enough space in the disk. A common misconception is unarchivation, which is not considered an installation action because it does not include user choices, such as accepting or declining EULA.

===Silent installation===
A "silent installation" is an installation that does not display messages or windows during its progress. "Silent installation" is not the same as "unattended installation" (see below): All silent installations are unattended but not all unattended installations are silent. The reason behind a silent installation may be convenience or subterfuge. [[Malware]] and viruses can be installed silently when a person clicks on a link while working at a business they think is real but is a hacker's program download.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-20 |title=What is a Silent Installation? |url=https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/silent-installation/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Webopedia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Silent Install Definition |url=https://techterms.com/definition/silent_install |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=techterms.com}}</ref> For normal users silent installation is not of much use, but in bigger organizations where thousands of users work, deploying the applications becomes a typical task and for that reason silent installation is performed so that the application is installed in the background without affecting the work of the user. Silent parameters can vary from software to software; if a software/application has silent parameters, it can be checked by " <software.exe> /? " or " <software.exe> /help " or " <software.exe> -help ".

Silently installing a software program can be used to deploy a program on networks in educational institutions, including [[Primary education|primary]] and [[secondary education]] and universities, in addition to business, government, and corporate networks. The person managing the silent installation can choose to add a desktop shortcut, for example, to silently install Google Drive with a desktop shortcut:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bergner |first=Jason |title=Google Drive Silent Install (How-To Guide) |url=https://silentinstallhq.com/google-drive-silent-install-how-to-guide/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Silent Install HQ |language=en-us}}</ref><syntaxhighlight lang="powershell">
GoogleDrive.exe --silent --desktop_shortcut=true
</syntaxhighlight>

===Unattended installation===
Installation that is performed without user interaction during its progress or with no user present at all. One of the reasons to use this approach is to automate the installation of a large number of systems. An unattended installation either does not require the user to supply anything or has received all necessary input prior to the start of installation. Such input may be in the form of [[command line]] [[switch (command line)|switches]] or an ''answer file'', a file that contains all the necessary parameters. [[Windows XP]] and [[List of Linux distributions|most Linux distributions]] are examples of operating systems that can be installed with an answer file. In unattended installation, it is assumed that there is no user to help mitigate errors. For instance, if the installation medium was faulty, the installer should fail the installation, as there is no user to fix the fault or replace the medium. Unattended installers may record errors in a [[computer data logging|computer log]] for later review.

===Headless installation===
Installation performed without using a [[computer monitor]] connected. In attended forms of headless installation, another machine connects to the target machine (for instance, via a [[local area network]]) and takes over the display output. Since a headless installation does not need a user at the location of the target computer, unattended headless installers may be used to install a program on multiple machines at the same time.

===Scheduled or automated installation===
An installation process that runs on a preset time or when a predefined condition transpires, as opposed to an installation process that starts explicitly on a user's command. For instance, a [[system administrator]] willing to install a later version of a computer program that is being used can schedule that installation to occur when that program is not running. An operating system may automatically install a device driver for a device that the user connects. (See [[plug and play]].) Malware may also be installed automatically. For example, the infamous Con ficker was installed when the user plugged an infected device to their computer.

===Clean installation===
A clean installation is one that is done in the absence of any interfering elements such as old versions of the computer program being installed or leftovers from a previous installation. In particular, the clean installation of an operating system is an installation in which the target [[disk partition]] is erased before installation. Since the interfering elements are absent, a clean installation may succeed where an unclean installation may fail or may take significantly longer.

===Network installation===
{{distinguish|Network booting}}

Network installation, shortened net install, is an installation of a program from a [[Shared resource|shared network resource]] that may be done by installing a minimal system before proceeding to download further packages over the network. This may simply be a copy of the original media but software publishers which offer site licenses for institutional customers may provide a version intended for installation over a network.