I just wanted to post this for others to reference in case it helps you out. I have found that many times when I start an install from a network deploy, it hangs at the setup initialization screen. I just created the deploys and did the whole uncheck silent install option from another posting, but that problem turned out to be UNC paths becoming too long for the product install files when nested deeper than the root of the network share (the deploys should be created at \\server\share, not any deeper).
The other quirk about setup hanging from the start is that I noticed the setup.exe and other related .exe installer apps running aren't actually doing anything moments after you start. It might churn for a few seconds but then CPU usage drops to zero. It's not that they aren't responding or crashed, they just stop.
The solution?
Open the Resource Monitor and find setup.exe. Right-click and select Suspend Process. Wait a few seconds and then right-click it again and select Resume Process. Setup.exe then immediately begins processing again and the installer continues. This seems to work every time for me.
Thanks for the tip! Hopefully this will help users experiencing this problem in the future!
Alittle late on a reply here, but i just dealt with the same issue. Setup is executed but doesn't show any useage in task manager.
The problem for me was that I setup my Admin Image on a different computer and then transfered it over to a new located.
The problem was that the Setup.exe file when you go to properties is still trying to reference the old location.
Update the links in the setup file to be where your adminimage is actually located, as well as modify the .ini files located under the AdminImage folder to the right destination paths and the setup will then startup and run. Otherwise it just hangs at initializing forever and never finds the setup files.
Thanks,
Randy