How do I change the NI update service preferences through the command line?

[SoftwareTech1]

I'm looking for the command line switches in order to change the update preferences.  I want our machines on campus to download the updates and install them at a later time.  I know how to do this manually but we have 90 machines to update. 

[LaRisa]

Update Service preferences are not configurable from the command line. Further, Update Service cannot be configured to download updates automatically. Downloading and installing always requires user interaction.

If all of your machines have the same NI software installed, I have this recommendation: You could run Update Service manually on just one machine. After you select and install the updates you want, the suited installer is saved in

C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\Update Service\Installers\NI_date_time. You can copy that folder to your other machines and automate the setup.exe in that folder. That will install all the same updates on the other machines.

[jallen88]

LaRisa may be able to confirm whether or not this is an acceptable solution.

The preferences for NI Update Service are saved in the following .ini file as plain text:

<ProgramData>\National Instruments\Update Service\config.ini

The key/value pairs in this file that are related to enabling/disabling the update or postponing updates are:

ScheduleDay = 3
ScheduleHour = 14
Scheduled = False
UpdateSelection = 1
DownloadMode = 0

You could write a simple script that could modify or replace this file, and then run that on the campus machines to automate the process of configuring NI Update Service. Any thoughts on this LaRisa?

[jallen88]

Additionally, as is mentioned in NI Discussion Forums: How To Disable Update Service Prompt, you can add the /disableNotificationCheck flag to the setup.exe call during install to disable Update Service, which can be enabled at a later time.