Love that old bat language. Timothy Hales We want a highlighter for it!
Here is Stace's code (I added line continuations for readability). It looks correct to me.
REM Install ArcGIS Desktop 10.4.1 with options
C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe^
/I "\\sul-gislab\geowares\Esri\ArcGIS_Desktop_10.4.1\Desktop\SetupFiles\setup.msi"^
ESRI_LICENSE_HOST=27004@sul-gislm.stanford.edu^
INSTALLDIR1=C:\Python27^
SOFTWARE_CLASS=Professional^
SEAT_PREFERENCE=Float^
/norestart /passive /qb
Does this reproduce on different machines? We have noticed that this setting does NOT overwrite an existing setup (fixed, float, license server) if already set. I think the idea is you don't mess up somebody's provisioning if they are already up and running, as that would be bad. I haven't seen this fail when the setting isn't already in place on a machine though, ie a new desktop.
UPDATE: I asked one my friends in Redlands on the install team and it turns out that this is indeed the intended behavior when installing on top of an existing desktop install. They will update the docs to make this more clear.
It is on purpose, we take the UPGRADE concept to the level of preserving existing settings and using them for the installation. If someone wants to change installation settings, our thinking is they should uninstall and install the next setup as a fresh installation.
Here are the two references of interest, just for the good of the thread:
Just an aside, I avoid UNC paths - in fact I almost always follow SCCM's lead and copy (robocopy) to a local folder and install there to avoid weirdness caused by network latency issues.