If you need to change settings and msi behaviors, such as adding an activesetup to suppress the EULA acceptance on first run for users, without wanting to run the extracted msi's manually, do the following:
1) Extract the contents of the installer with:
VMware-player-4.0.1-528992.exe /e
You will see:
- a plethora of .cab files which are referenced by "vmware player.msi"
- vmware player.msi
- vmwarevmcisockets.msi
- vmwarevmcisockets64.msi
- bootstrap.lua: the main installer logic
- common.lua: a bunch of functions that bootsrap.lua
- ui.pkg: needed to execute the extracted contents.
- vnetlib.exe and vnetlib64.exe
- vcredist_x64.exe and vcredist.exe: 32/64 bit VC++ 2008 sp1 runtimes v9.0.30729.4148 which is the baseline .17 with a security hotfix baked in
- a few .ico and .dll files
- VMware-player-4.0.1-528992.exe : the bootstrapper executable which will be used to run the changed package.
2) You can alter the installation behavior by modifying the bootstrap.lua script logic.
For instance, I don't want it to install the VC++ runtimes as I control that myself. Therefore I remmed out the lines that references it ("--" rems out a line):
-- Before installing Player we need to install the VC9 runtime libraries
-- UnpackFiles("vcredist_x86.exe")
-- Run("vcredist_x86.exe", "/q")
tOSInfo = SystemAnalysis() -- kept this line as its value may be used in different parts of the script
-- if tOSInfo.bitness == 64 then
-- UnpackFiles("vcredist_x64.exe")
-- Run("vcredist_x64.exe", "/q")
-- end
You can also edit the msi. If you're good with .lua scripts, you can add the reference to the .mst. As I'm not the best at them, I just edited the .msi(s) directly.
3) To disable the user license prompt on first execution:
*) Install Vmware player on a test machine. Run it, accept the license. For Windows 7, Goto %userprofile%\appdata\roaming\vmware\ and copy preferences.ini.
*) Add preferences.ini to "vmware player.msi" with your favorite msi editor placing it in the same location.
*) add an activesetup to ensure it gets installed for each user
*) Modify the property defaults to turn off auto updates, desktop shortcuts, or any other features you may not like. Some of the common properties are:
- AUTOSOFTWAREUPDATE
- COMPONENTDOWNLOAD
- DESKTOP_SHORTUCT
- DATACOLLECTION
- DISABLE_AUTORUN
- QUICKLAUNCH_SHORTCUT
- STARTMENU_SHORTCUT
NOTE: Many of these are also mentioned in the boostrap.lua and can be altered in that.
*) save/compile. Update the original msi or, if you're good at lua's, as an mst.
To run the completed, modified source (switches are case-sensitive):
VMware-player-4.0.1-528992.exe /P ui.pkg /S PathwhereExtractedFilesareLocated /s /nsr
e.g.
VMware-player-4.0.1-528992.exe /P ui.pkg /S c:\users\administrator\Desktop\VmWarePlayer4.0.1PKG /s /nsr
or if in an install.cmd that's in the source dir:
On uninstall the application by using
msiexec /x [ProductCode] /qb
warning message appear:
"Do you want to preserve your existing settings for VMware Player?"
For suppressing this message and uninstall the application without prompts, please change the Target in the vendor Custom Action "VM_RemovePlayerSettings_SetData":
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