Customizing MSI Switches

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The switches used in MSI packages are not package-specific. They are provided by the Windows installer, MsiExec.exe.

To view the switches

  1. Open a command prompt: on the Start menu, click Run. In the Open text box, type cmd.exe.

  2. At the command prompt, type msiexec /? and then press Enter.

  3. The command returns the following:

  4. 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 productDisplay Options/quietQuiet mode, no user interaction/passiveUnattended mode - progress bar only/q[n|b|r|f]Sets user interface leveln - No UI            b - Basic UIr - Reduced UIf - Full UI (default)/helpHelp informationRestart Options/norestartDo not restart after the installation is complete/promptrestartPrompts the user for restart if necessary/forcerestartAlways restart the computer after installationLogging Options/l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x|+|!|*] <LogFile>i - Status messagesw - Nonfatal warningse - All error messagesa - Start up of actionsr - Action-specific recordsu - User requestsc - Initial UI parametersm - Out-of-memory or fatal exit informationo - Out-of-disk-space messagesp - Terminal propertiesv - Verbose outputx - 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 productRepair Options/f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>Repairs a productp - only if file is missingo - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installedd - if file is missing or a different version is installedc - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated valuea - forces all files to be reinstalledu - 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 packageSetting Public Properties[PROPERTY=PropertyValue]

For a successful DCS silent installation, you must set the appropriate properties for the features that you want to install. For additional information about the MsiExec.exe command line syntax, refer to the Windows Installer SDK.