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I have a setup file that is .exe. I am using msiexec /i option to launch the exe file and it throws "This package could not be opened" exception. I like this launch as I can log any errors with /lv option. Is there a command line available to launch setup.exe with msiexec

However, the exe does run when I double click.

Any guidance is much appreciated

thanks

G33kKahuna
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    `msiexec` can open only `.msi` packages. Even if your `setup.exe` contains .msi package you won't be able to run it this way. I guess you have to contact the setup vendor to get installation option. Note, however, there can be no logging options at all. – Alexey Ivanov Jun 27 '12 at 16:53
  • Generally not a good idea to launch `setup.exe` files from an MSI, and not possible if you launch the MSI in silent mode (for detailed, technical reasons I can't go into in this limited space). You can try to determine what `setup.exe` type you are dealing with: [**Extract MSI from EXE**](https://stackoverflow.com/a/24987512/129130) and [**Setup.exe and uninstall**](https://stackoverflow.com/a/49600406/129130). – Stein Åsmul Apr 11 '18 at 13:49

1 Answers1

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Many installation tools can generate setup.exe files. Not all of them contain MSI's internally. Are you certain this one does? I'd need to examine the exe to make that determination and advise you on the proper command line arguments.

Christopher Painter
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  • Thanks for your response. I am working with the vendor to get the setup.exe uploaded somewhere. In the meantime, is there something i can look for? some checks I can run to provide you with additional detail? – G33kKahuna Jun 27 '12 at 13:30
  • I did, it just launches the executable. There is nothing in the command prompt – G33kKahuna Jun 27 '12 at 16:28
  • You are going to have to profile it then. Profile it with tools to determine what files it might be extracting and processes it might be spawning. Try to figure out if it's a wrapper for something inside. Otherwise you might have an EXE that simply doesn't expose what you need. In that case you have to reverse engineer it and write it from scratch as an MSI. This is called repackaging. – Christopher Painter Jun 27 '12 at 16:57