Windows Installer (MSIEXEC)

• Documented command line arguments
• Undocumented command line arguments ⁽¹⁾
• More to explore

Documented command line arguments

Type MSIEXEC /? and you'll get the following on-screen help:

    Windows ® Installer. V 3.01.4000.1823 
    
    msiexec /Option <Required Parameter> [Optional Parameter]
    
    Install Options
    	</package | /i> <Product.msi>
    		Installs or configures a product
    	/a <Product.msi>
    		Administrative install - Installs a product on the network
    	/j<u|m> <Product.msi> [/t <Transform List>] [/g <Language ID>]
    		Advertises a product - m to all users, u to current user
    	</uninstall | /x> <Product.msi | ProductCode>
    		Uninstalls the product

    Display Options
    	/quiet
    		Quiet mode, no user interaction
    	/passive
    		Unattended mode - progress bar only
    	/q[n|b|r|f]
    		Sets user interface level
    		n - No UI
    		b - Basic UI
    		r - Reduced UI
    		f - Full UI (default)
    	/help
    		Help information

    Restart Options
    	/norestart
    		Do not restart after the installation is complete
    	/promptrestart
    		Prompts the user for restart if necessary
    	/forcerestart
    		Always restart the computer after installation

    Logging Options
    	/l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x|+|!|*] <LogFile>
    		i - Status messages
    		w - Nonfatal warnings
    		e - All error messages
    		a - Start up of actions
    		r - Action-specific records
    		u - User requests
    		c - Initial UI parameters
    		m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information
    		o - Out-of-disk-space messages
    		p - Terminal properties
    		v - Verbose output
    		x - Extra debugging information
    		+ - Append to existing log file
    		! - Flush each line to the log
    		* - Log all information, except for v and x options
    	/log <LogFile>
    		Equivalent of /l* <LogFile>

    Update Options
    	/update <Update1.msp>[;Update2.msp]
    		Applies update(s)
    	/uninstall <PatchCodeGuid>[;Update2.msp] /package <Product.msi | ProductCode>
    		Remove update(s) for a product

    Repair Options
    	/f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>
    		Repairs a product
    		p - only if file is missing
    		o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)
    		e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed
    		d - if file is missing or a different version is installed
    		c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value
    		a - forces all files to be reinstalled
    		u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)
    		m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)
    		s - all existing shortcuts (default)
    		v - runs from source and recaches local package

    Setting Public Properties
    	[PROPERTY=PropertyValue]
    
    Consult the Windows ® Installer SDK for additional documentation on the
    command line syntax.
    
    Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
    Portions of this software are based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

Undocumented ⁽¹⁾ command line arguments

My collegue Adriaan Westra taught me the trick to suppress reboots when installing .MSI files from the command line (better believe me, /norestart rarely does what it suggests):

MSIEXEC /i myfile.msi /qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress

This made me curious if there are more unknown arguments, so I started experimenting.
Try for yourself, type:

STRINGS MSIEXEC.EXE | FINDSTR /R /C:"[A-Z][A-Z]\="

and you'll find the following undocumented (?) command line arguments (called "Public Properties" in MSIEXEC's on-screen help):

REMOVE=ALL
ACTION=ADMIN
REINSTALL=ALL
REBOOTPROMPT=""
REBOOT=Force
REBOOT=ReallySuppress
MSIPATCHREMOVE=
PATCH=

More to explore

• Microsoft's MSIEXEC page
• ORCA is Microsoft's .MSI editor; it comes as part of the Windows Installer SDK, which can be downloaded separately or, in turn, as part of the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK
• Use Veritas WinINSTALL LE for simple modifications to .MSI files; you can find it in the "\VALUEADD\3RDPARTY\MGMT\WINSTLE" directory of any Windows 2000 CD-ROM
• Microsoft's MST File Viewer enables you to view the customizations that a transform (.MST file) will make
• Search the registry for uninstall commands with my GetUnins.vbs.

• Unattended/silent installation switches for Windows apps at sourceforge.net tells us "all" about command line switches for unattended installs; if you're serious about unattended installations, you should definitely read this page