This is a small tutorial on the rollout of MSI applications. MSI is a Microsoft format for applications on Windows, and stands for Microsoft Installer. Nowadays the installer is referred to as the Windows Installer.

Covered topics:

1. Usage examples
2. Msiexec options
3. Properties
4. MSI and ZENworks
5. Additional information

Official options

• msiexec /?

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.

Extra explanation display level (/q switch):

b      Basic: Display only simple progress indicators and error messages. 
f      Full: Display all dialog boxes and messages. This setting is the same as when you omit the /q option.
n      None: Display no user interface. This setting is same as when you use /q option with no parameters. 
r      Reduced: Display all progress indicators and error messages but do not collect any user information. 
-      Suppress all modal dialog boxes.  Use only with the b option.
+      Add completion message to either the n or the b option. The completion message is displayed only when setup does not have to restart the computer after the installation.

Property usage: Specify a property value on the command line. If the value contains spaces, enclose it in quotation marks (“). To specify two or more property-value pairs, separate them with spaces.

ZENworks has the option to rollout MSIs using native MSI techniques. Meaning you can point ZENworks to a MSI installation file and edit the ZENworks object with options and properties to modify your installation. This is something I never actually do. In my experience there are too many things that can go wrong. I've had several 16xx errors which couldn't always be solved. Which had led me to combine ZENworks and MSIs in a different way. I create a simple application which I point to the c:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe file. When I've created the object I edit the parameters and working directories to match the installation source:

To see an example of this see GroupWise Client Rollout

http://www.msiwisdom.com is a website with a lot of information about MSI and deployment.

SuperOrca from “Pantaray Research Ltd.” is a direct replacement to the “Orca” MSI Editor from Microsoft. SuperOrca may be used to examine and modify an MSI database. For more information and download see here.

• regedit /s java.reg

Example registry file:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy]
"EnableJavaUpdate"=dword:00000000
"NotifyDownload"=dword:00000000
"NotifyInstall"=dword:00000000
"PromptAutoUpdateCheck"=-

From Pantaray - MSI error codes
From Microsoft MSDN - MSI error codes