Command line startup for Prism Windows

When Prism Windows starts up, you can give it some special instructions in the command line. These options only work on Windows. There is no similar mechanism for sending startup commands to Mac applications. The choices are identical for Prism 5 and 6, with the exception of command line switches for the installer, which are new to Prism 6. 

In order to add command line instructions, edit the Prism.exe start icon. Right click on the Prism desktop icon and In Properties change the target to add the command after the last quote mark. Leave a space between the quote mark and the slash, so the target looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\GraphPad\Prism6\prism.exe" /U     (substitute 5, if using Prism 5)

More generally:

[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /U

You can use hyphens or slashes (-U and /U) interchangeaby. 

All of the options shown below also work if you use the Shell command to launch Prism from another program using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Run prism script - @[some_prism_script_file_path]

To create an icon that launches a specific Prism script, point your mouse to an empty spot on the desktop, click the right mouse button and select New… Shortcut. Enter a command line that starts Prism and points to the Prism script file to launch. Include the @ symbol in front of the path to the script name. If either path includes spaces, include the entire path in quotes as shown below:

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" @"c:\program files\GraphPad\Prism5\scripts\doit.PZC"

Read more about Prism scripts.

Turrning off check for update - /U

When Prism 5 (Windows) first starts, it tries to check for updates via the web. If it can't connect, it normally just keeps going. But in very rare cases, it tries to check for updates and then can't get past this step so never gets to the Welcome dialog. This is quite rare, but easy to work around. One way to get Prism to stop check for updates is to use the /U switch when starting Prism. This requires Prism 5.02 or later.

Edit the Prism start icon so that the target looks something like this (with quotes around the path, but not around the /U, and a space beteween the quotation mark and the slash):

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /U

 

Create startup log  - /L

If Prism will not start at all, it can help to create a start log. This will show us which steps Prism completes successfully and which steps fail. To create a start log, edit the Prism start icon to add the /L switch so the target looks looks something like this (with quotes around the path, but not around the /L, and a space beteween the quotation mark and the slash):

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /L

 

Regenerate PZE files (prism equations cache) - /E

The "built-in" equations are actually installed as a set of Prism files. You can even add your own "built-in" equations. The first time Prism runs, it compiles these equations to a form (.PZE files) that it can access and compute very quickly. It should never be necessary, but you can force Prism to compile all the equations again. To do so, edit the Prism start icon to add the /E switch so the target looks something like this (with quotes around the path, but not around the /E, and a space beteween the quotation mark and the slash):

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /E

 

Print file - /P [file_path]

You can create an icon that will open a Prism file and print all pages. Edit the Prism start icon to add the /P switch so the target looks like this. Please note space between /P and [file_path]. Prism 5.03 now prints silently, without Prism appearing in the taskbar.

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /P c:\test.pzf

 

Use custom option file  - /O [prism_cfg_file_path]

Prism stores many settings in a preference file (also called an options file). This file contains all the settings in the Preferences dialog, a list of recently used files, user-defined equations, color schemes and more. You can use a startup option to force Prism to access the preferences file from a different location. This might be useful if you use Prism for several very distinct uses, and want a separate set of preferences for each. It would also be useful if different people use Prism, and each wants unique preferences, but they all want to log in to WIndows as the same User. To tell Prism to use a unique preference file, edit the Prism start icon to add the /O switch so the target looks like this. Please note the space between /O and [file_path].

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe"  /O c:\gsconfig.cfg

 

Don't save preferences - /C  

Prism stores many settings in a preference file (also called an options file). This file contains all the settings in the Preferences dialog, a list of recently used files, user-defined equations, color schemes and more. You can use a startup option to tell Prism to not save any changes to the preferences file. This is useful in a teaching lab, or a shared computer, so Prism will always start with the same preferences.

"[prism-install-directory]\prism.exe" /C

 

NEW FOR PRISM 6. COMMAND LINE SWITCH FOR THE PRISM INSTALLER

Specify location of startupconfig.xml  - /V   (new with Prism 6)

If you install Prism for many people, you can use startupconfig.xml to specify how the installation works. Request our IT installation guide for details. Use the /V switch to specify the folder where Prism will find startupconfig.xml and whether or not Prism will launch automatically after installation. '

"[prism-install-directory]\installprism6.exe" /V STARTUPCONFIGPATH "path that contains startupconfig.xml"  STARTPRISM #

The final digit (denoted by #) should be 0 if you do not want Prism to be launched after installation, and 1 if you do want Prism to be launched. 

Silent install   -  /S

Install silently without displaying dialogs or progress.