How to Use SAPWD switch to Suuply the SA pass

The following is from the "sp3readme.htm" file located in the same folder as the setup.exe file.

To install a new instance of Desktop Engine

  1.. Open a command prompt window.


  2.. From the command prompt, use the cd command to navigate to the folder 
containing the MSDE 2000 SP3a setup utility:
  cd c:\MSDESP3aFolder\MSDE

  where c:\MSDESP3aFolder is either the path to the folder into which you 
extracted the MSDE 2000 SP3a files, or the Desktop Engine SP3a folder on the 
SQL Server 2000 SP3a CD.

  3.. Execute one of the following commands:
    a.. To install a default instance configured to use Windows 
Authentication Mode, execute:
setup SAPWD="AStrongSAPwd"Where AStrongSAPwd is a strong password to be 
assigned to the sa login.

    b.. To install a named instance configured to use Windows Authentication 
Mode, execute:
setup INSTANCENAME="InstanceName" SAPWD="AStrongSAPwd"Where AStrongSAPwd is 
a strong password to be assigned to the sa login and InstanceName is the 
name to be assigned to the instance.

    c.. To install a default instance configured to use Mixed Mode, execute:
setup SAPWD="AStrongSAPwd" SECURITYMODE=SQLWhere AStrongSAPwd is a strong 
password to be assigned to the sa login.

    d.. To install a named instance configured to use Mixed Mode, execute:
setup INSTANCENAME="InstanceName" SECURITYMODE=SQL SAPWD="AStrongSAPwd"Where 
AStrongSAPwd is a strong password to be assigned to the sa login and 
InstanceName is the name to be assigned to the instance.

Here are some additional references

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;810826
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322336/EN-US/

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