In a previous post, i have shown how to create a self-extracting and self-installing .exe using 7ZIP SFX Maker. But what if you want a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for it? The steps are not so different. In this case i’m using 3 MSIs with one Install.VBS that install […]
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If you don’t have a tool for packaging, like Advanced Installer for example, you can create a self-extracting .Exe that runs a command after installation with 7Zip SFX Maker. You can find 7Zip SFX Maker here. Once you have it downloaded and installed there are a few steps to take […]
One interesting situation that i was in a while back was that a customer wanted a big bundle of apps installed on several machines. Upon inspecting the bundle, this was made with an Install.VBS and contained more than 20 apps. Oddly enough, each MSI had an outside media (nope, […]
One downside with MSIs is the repair function. This is a challenge for all IT PROs to find a way to make the repair work when the source media is not present on the machine anymore. While there are some alternatives to repair custom user data or registry, if […]
We all know by now that the MSI information is stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ – For 32bit apps HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ – For 64bit Apps In here you can find all the information needed about an MSI, for example the Product Name, Version, where it was installed from, uninstall string, and many […]
This script is useful if you want to replace a certain string only in files with a specific extension. In this tutorial we will replace a string “Replace Me” with “This is replaced” only in files that have the “.txt” and “.csv” extensions, and another string “Hello” with “Bye” in […]
Haven’t used this in a while, but i’ve stumbled across an exe installer that requires reboot, and after reboot it continues the installation of some user MSI. However, during reboot the MSI installation would fail. The MSI was afterwards deleted. So how can i make a log to see […]
For a while i had some issues in a infrastructure of many users installing per-user MSI’s. Problem is, when the same application is packaged and deployed in the infrastructure, this is done to be a per-machine installation and, it doesn’t update/remove the per-user MSI because you are executing the […]
I’ve encountered some applications that, during installation, change the default printer for the users on the machine, regardless if it’s installed from an admin account or system account. To prevent this, you might want to look into the MSI custom actions, but if you don’t have that option, then […]
There might be cases when multiple applications modify the same extension. With these simple scripts you can do a backup and restore of the registry in your MSI. First, create a vbscript for backup: This script creates a folder named “MyApp” in C:\Windows\Installer. By using the […]
Let’s assume that you have a big vendor MSI with lots of features and components. You apply a transform to it according to the specifications sent by the customer. So far so good. But how do you test if everything is installed accordingly? Microsoft offers a VBScript called WiLstPrd.vbs which is […]
Let’s say, for example, that you have a file with multiple lines in the form of: And let’s say you have a variable in the form of: What if you want to add only MyText4 and MyText5 into the file? The solution is simple, we […]