Question

What is the best way to automatically install an MSI file or installer .exe? We want to do some automated testing from our build system on the installed copy of the product. Our installer has the usual license acceptance screen, install location, etc.

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As FryHard pointed out there are two options in particular that seem handy:

• ‘/quiet’ – no use interaction
• ‘/passive’ – process bar only, unattended mode

Answer 1

To automate the installation of an MSI package, you can use the /I option, like this:

msiexec.exe /qn /i mypackage.msi 

Keep in mind that you need to specify the properties the MSI package expect the user to specify through the UI, and for which it does not have a default value.

You can use the Orca tool to see the list of properties and fiddle around with MSI conditions, etc. And to set values for the properties, you can just specify it in command line; e.g. to set a property ISDEBUG:

msiexec.exe /qn /i mypackage.msi ISDEBUG=1

Side note: To automate uninstall, use the /X option with the package or the product code:

msiexec.exe /qn /x mypackage.msi 

or this (where you need to change the CLSID with your product code):

msiexec.exe /qn /x {B741B8A3-8DCB-44E0-B06F-2A11F56572DB}