Software Deployment

You can sometimes pull an MSI and the accompaning files out of a temp folder that is created when starting an install.

First you need to start the executable, and when it gets to the splash page (where you click Next for the first time) don't click anything and go to the %temp% folder. There'll be a new folder sometimes with a ~setup at the end of it. Inside there could be the MSI and other files it needs to run.

Some executables can be extracted with an archival software (7zip, WinRAR, Alzip, etc.) You can also try to open it with one of those and extract the files inside.

Have you tried "setup /?" to see what switches are available? Sometimes you can get the MSI that way with an /extract or /admin.

Even if not, it should still create its own folder in %TEMP%.. just start the install and while it's running but before you click anything in it, sort %TEMP% by date and see if any folders (or logfiles) were just dumped there with a current timestamp.

As for the setup.iss - that should only be used if you install silently, so try adding a -s ... and if setup.iss is in the same folder, you don't even need the /f1"path" part when using -s.

hth

I was able to extract the contents, but nothing was really readable. I did some reading and was able to create a response file using the following syntx:

setup.exe /R /F1"C:\Temp\Setup.iss"

Trying to run a small batch that references this response file, but it doesn't seem to be working for some reason. If I look in the event logs it is saying the package installed correctly, but nothing has been installed.

ZT

If the 'Setup.iss' file is in the same folder as the 'Setup.exe' should the syntax be the following:

Setup.exe /s /sms /f1"setup.iss"

ZT

its a simple task.

First empty %temp% folder. than try to install the exe keep           %temp% folder open because most of the exe dumps msi in this folder. Just copy paste that folder on some other location as that msi or msi folder will delete itself after installation. One more thing make a log of your installation by

msiexec /i "C:\MyPackage\Example.msi" /L*V "C:\log\example.log"

as you get the location of msi if exe dumpls in some other location.

Use installrite or picturetaker to scan the installation and then you can find the actual source whether it is msi or an install shield exe

>nothing was really readable
Does that matter? If you're using a package authoring tool, you can use its transform generation utility (e.g. InstallShield's InstallTailor) to create the transform. All you need to do is click 'Next', 'Next', 'Next'! :-)