how to make an existing msi package unattended install

Question

Sorry for the newbie-ish question, but for all my years, I've never dealt with windows installation except as a user and I'm not sure how to start this.

I have two 3rd party packages to install. One I know is msi based but the other I have not found out yet. It comes with a setup.exe and a wrapper.exe - which we use to install.

Both installation prompt the user for language and a number of various options. I need to wrap or do something to make these unattended installations.

I may be able to get some property information and I've read Silent installation of a MSI package - is that how I go about doing this? There will be a boat load of properties.

Basically, how do I go about wrapping the setup.exe and building / providing some type of response file.

thanks, jon

Answer 1

Try this procedure to test if the setup is an MSI:

• In the folder where your setup.exe is located, hold down shift, and right click in an empty space. Click "Open new command window here".
• Type in setup.exe /a and let the setup start. This should launch an "admin install" if the setup.exe is an MSI setup at all. If you see a way to specify a path, define one and press next. This should now extract all files from within the setup.exe exposing the MSI file.
• Once you have the MSI file extracted, it can in most cases be installed via a standard msiexec.exe command line like this: msiexec.exe /i setup.msi

To learn how to install an MSI file silently, check this thread: How to interactive a silently installing msi? (Progress data and cancel it)

Just one final question: are you delivering these setups as a product, or are you trying to install to your work network or similar?