How do I add/update a property inside an MSI from the command-line?

Issue

I have an MSI installer in which I need to add or modify a short text property from the command-line.

This has to be done after the installer is built; I cannot modify the process that produces the installer in the first place. It also has to be executed headless from a script.

When I say “property,” it could be an MSI property, a value that gets written to the registery at install-time, or any other mechanism that can get this short custom text into the installed application when it runs.

Solution

Example VBScript that you could use to update (or add) a property post-build…

    Option Explicit

    Const MSI_FILE = "myfile.msi"


    Dim installer, database, view

    Set installer = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
    Set database = installer.OpenDatabase (MSI_FILE, 1)

    ' Update
    Set view = database.OpenView ("UPDATE Property SET Value = '" & myproperty & "' WHERE Property = 'MYPROPERTY'")

    ' .. or Add (Insert)
    Set view = database.OpenView ("INSERT INTO Property (Property, Value) VALUES ('MYPROPERTY', '" & myproperty & "')")
    view.Execute
    database.Commit

    Set database = Nothing
    Set installer = Nothing
    Set view = Nothing

For more information check out the Windows Installer SDK (part of the Windows SDK)

There’s a bunch of example scripts that you can use from the command line to do various MSI manipulation tasks

For example WiRunSQL.vbs lets you execute arbitrary SQL against an MSI.

Answered By – saschabeaumont

This Answer collected from stackoverflow, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5 , cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0