MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Windows Installer FAQ (the basics)MSIEXEC.EXE

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MSIEXEC.EXE Command line

The MSIEXEC.EXE command line is documented at AppDeploy.com, MSI command line FAQ and many other places.

Some of the return codes MSIEXEC can return are documented at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368542.aspx.

Note that I do not know all the issues associated with using the commands as shown below so please take care and test them yourself! They should provide a good starting point as it is hard to find any decent examples.

These sections are available:

• Administrative Install
• Register (fix Windows Installer)
• Repair
• Setting Public Property values
• Selecting Features
• Silent Install
• Logging of Installation Activities

Some bugs specific to its command line handling:

1. MSIEXEC.EXE - Setting Property Values to NULL
2. MSIEXEC.EXE - Silent Mode Displays Dialog on Command Line Error and Wrong Return Code

The MSIEXEC.EXE Service

There is a service that runs "MSIEXEC.EXE", this gets automatically started and stopped as required, if you start an install and wait at the "welcome" screen you will see (with "PROCESS EXPLORER") two "MSIEXEC.EXE" processes were started. If you cancel the install you will see that the service task will remain in memory for a period of time (10 minutes?).

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