Microsoft offers a tool to manipulate the installation of MSI.

Orca let’s you create a transform file to change almost everything. You can also view the properties the MSI uses internal to control the installation steps. Both can be applied to the MSI from the commandline. Together with the Quite install this can make your installations a little easier.

Transform

You can create a transform (MST) file with Orca. First load the MSI, then start a new Transform (Transform > New Transform). Every change you make is logged. When done you can save the changes to a file. (Generate Transform)

Call the MSI from the commandline

msiexec /qn /i your.msi TRANSFORMS=your.mst

Properties

Another way to influence the installation is with properties. Orca shows the properties in the Property table. (see screenshot) You can change the value used during installation by specifying the value on the commandline.

msiexec /qn /i your.msi INSTALLATIONTYPE="Server"

Use case

I’m using this to configure and install test machines in Azure. From powershell you can create an AzureVm, start a session to the new Vm and install the MSI the way you need it.

References

• Orca editor for MSI packages on klaus-hartnegg blog
• Microsoft Support page for Orca