Mathematica Tutorial

Installing Mathematica on Windows

Installing Mathematica for Network Licenses

Requirements

Mathematica is available for Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X. For a complete list of platform availability, visit www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/platforms.html. Any supported machine can act as a client for running Mathematica, provided the following two conditions are met:

The client has access to the Mathematica files, either locally or from a file server on the network.

The license server running MathLM is available on the TCP/IP network.

A license server can also function as its own client. However, this is not recommended. If the machine has to be rebooted for any reason, the serving of licenses to all other clients on the network may be disrupted.

Before you install Mathematica as a license server client, MathLM should already be installed and running on a license server on the network (see "Installing MathLM" for details). To complete the Mathematica installation, you will need to know the name or IP address of the license server running MathLM.

To install Mathematica on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista, you must have administrative privileges.

To Install Mathematica:

1. Insert the Mathematica CD. The Mathematica CD window appears on your screen. Click the button labeled Install Mathematica to a hard disk.

2. The Mathematica Setup window appears. By default, Mathematica is installed in the directory C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\6.0. To choose another destination directory, click Browse. Click Install when you are ready to begin copying files.

3. Once all the files are copied to your disk, a dialog box appears asking you to either enter your license information now or wait until later. Select Enter license information now, and then click Finish.

4. Mathematica starts up and the following password dialog box appears. Select Network License. Then enter the name or IP address of the license server running MathLM in the text field provided.

5. Click OK. You are now ready to start using Mathematica.

Installing Mathematica for Single-User Licenses

Follow these instructions to install a standalone copy of Mathematica that does not get a license from a license server. Depending on your license type, this may require contacting Wolfram Research to purchase additional licenses.

To run Mathematica, you must register with Wolfram Research and receive a password. See "Registration and Passwords" for further information.

To install Mathematica on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista, you must have administrative privileges.

To Install a Single-Machine Copy of Mathematica on Windows:

1. Insert the Mathematica CD. The Mathematica CD window appears on your screen. Click the button labeled Install Mathematica to a hard disk.

4. Mathematica starts up and the following password dialog box appears. Select Single Machine. Then enter your name, the name of your organization, and your license number (printed on your license certificate) in the text fields provided. Click OK when you are done.

5. The following dialog box appears showing the MathID number for your machine. To obtain your password, click the Web button, go to register.wolfram.com, or contact Wolfram Research (see "Registration and Passwords" for further information). You will need to supply your license number and your MathID number.

6. Enter your password and click OK.

Installing Mathematica from a File Server

One convenient way to install Mathematica is to run the installer remotely from a file server. This is an efficient way of making Mathematica available to a large number of users without having to supply a CD to each one.

Installing Mathematica from a file server requires first copying the installer executable and all files in the Mathematica distribution from the CD onto the file server.

1. Insert the Mathematica CD into the drive on the file server. Open a My Computer window, then right-click the CD in the list and select Open.

2. An Explorer window appears showing the contents of the CD-ROM. Select the Windows folder.

3. Copy the Windows folder from the CD to a location on the file server accessible to external users over the network.

Once this step is complete, you can install the Mathematica files on each client.

4. From the client, connect to the file server and open the Windows directory that was created on the file server.

5. Double-click the file Setup.exe to launch the installer.

6. Follow the same steps as for installing off a CD (see Network License and Single-User License).

Installing Mathematica from a Script

If you are installing Mathematica on multiple machines, it can be time-consuming to respond to all the installer prompts on each individual machine. Instead, you can run a silent installation by using a response file. A response file is a plain text file that contains answers to the installer prompts. There are two configurable parameters in a response file, FolderName and InstallDir. It is important that you do not change any parts of the response file other than the values of these parameters, or the installation will fail.

FolderName—The name of the folder for Mathematica icons created in the Start menu.

InstallDir—The directory in which Mathematica should be installed.

The response file install.iss is included in the Windows directory of your CD. This file contains the default responses used by the installer.

The following instructions explain how to write a simple script to silently install Mathematica from a file server. These instructions require that you have a mathpass file with a valid password.

To Create a Script that Performs a Silent Mathematica Installation:

1. Follow the instructions in the first part of "Installing Mathematica from a File Server", to copy the installer and files from the CD to a file server.

2. If you need to change the value of any of the default parameters in the response file, open the file install.iss in a text editor and make the required changes. Be sure that you do not change any parts of the file except the values of the parameters FolderName and InstallDir, or the installation will fail.

Note: If you get an error when you save the file, it might be marked as read-only. In order to save the file, remove the read-only attribute.

3. Copy your mathpass file to the same directory on the file server as the response file, installer, and Mathematica files.

4. Open Notepad (Start Menu ► Programs ► Accessories ► Notepad) and type the following lines into a new file.

@echo off echo Installing Mathematica... \\server \math\setup.exe -s -f1"\\server\math\install.iss" -f2"C:\Windows\Temp\install.log" echo Creating password file... copy \\server\math\mathpass "C:\Directory\Name" echo Mathematica installation complete.

5. Change all instances of \\server\math to the pathname of the network share where the Mathematica installation files and mathpass file were copied.

6. Change "C:\Directory\Name" to the directory listed here for your version of Windows. Be sure to enclose the name of the directory in quotes.

Windows Me—"C:\Windows\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica"

Windows NT—"C:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica"

Windows 2000/XP—"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica"

Note: These directories are the values of $BaseDirectory for different versions of Windows. See "Configuration Files on Windows" for further information.

7. To save the file, choose File ► Save As. Save the file in the same directory as the Mathematica installation files. Type the filename install.bat, and choose All Files from the Save as type popup menu. Click Save, then quit Notepad.

To Perform a Silent Mathematica Installation:

1. On the client, open a Command Prompt window, type the pathname of the install.bat file, and press Enter. For example, if the network share is called \\server\math, type:

\\server\math\install.bat

The following messages are displayed.

Installing Mathematica...
Creating password file...
Mathematica installation complete.

2. The installation is now complete. If you see any messages other than those printed here, check the file C:\Windows\Temp\install.log on the client machine for further information.

Installing Mathematica in this way eliminates the need to take the CD to each client machine, and saves time by allowing you to run a simple script instead of responding to the installer questions.