Run MsiExec from PowerShell and get Return Code

Question

With BAT/CMD script I can simply use "msiexec /i <whatever.msi> /quiet /norestart" and then check %errorlevel% for the result.

With VBScript, using the Wscript.Shell object Run() method, I can get the result like this:

"result = oShell.Run("msiexec /i ...", 1, True)"

How can I do this with PowerShell?

any sample with full source code ? – Kiquenet Jun 07 '12 at 09:45 — Kiquenet, Jun 07 '12 at 09:45

ravikanth · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-12T13:43:09.707

51

I would wrap that up in Start-Process and use the ExitCode property of the resulting process object. For example

(Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList "<<whatever>>" -Wait -Passthru).ExitCode

edited Nov 12 '10 at 13:43

answered Nov 10 '10 at 15:41

ravikanth

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That's what I was looking for! However, it's "ArgumentList" not "ArgumentsList", but in any case you answered the question - thank you! – Skatterbrainz Nov 12 '10 at 13:24
3

Notes; 1.Inside the quoted -ArgumentList, arguments are space-delimited and single quotes can be used to hold items like a path with spaces in the name. 2.ExitCode only becomes available if all spawned windows are closed; 3.I'm on PS v4.0. – AnneTheAgile Jan 21 '15 at 18:23
1

If you can't use the quoted `-ArgumentList " '$arg1\ with spaces\' arg2"` you can comma separate multiple arguments `-ArgumentList "$arg1\ with spaces\", arg2`, once it stops finding commas PowerShell assumes the next is another positional argument or if something like `-Wait` it will just resume processing the named arguments. – dragon788 Nov 17 '16 at 20:18

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '10 at 14:17

$LastExitCode

or

$?

depending on what you're after. The former is an integer, the latter just a boolean. Furthermore, $LastExitCode is only populated for native programs being run, while $? generally tells whether the last command run was successful or not – so it will also be set for cmdlets.

PS Home:\> cmd /c "echo foo"; $?,$LASTEXITCODE
foo
True
0
PS Home:\> cmd /c "ech foo"; $?,$LASTEXITCODE
'ech' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
False
1

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '18 at 09:45

You can also use the powershell app deployment kit which provides several things.

Then you can use for example

Execute-MSI -Action 'Install' -Path "$dirFiles\your.msi" -AddParameters "INSTALLFOLDER=C:\$appFolder"

info http://psappdeploytoolkit.com/

Run MsiExec from PowerShell and get Return Code

3 Answers3

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