Beginner Question - Custom Actions

[CChong]

First off, I'm just a technician not a developer and I'm still learning about msi. So sorry if this is a silly question.
I'm trying to debug an msi installation that we purchased from a company that purchased it from another company that no longer exists.
This msi file contains a custom action that I think may be at the root of our problems.
Is there any way for me to read the contents of this custom action so I can tell exactly what it's doing to our computers?
It appers to be launching something called "new_binary1.ibd." Of course, when I open this file from my AdminStudio project directory using a text editor, it's' not particularly legible. I don't know what the .ibd extension means, or whether this file is a compiled program or what.
Even removing it from the rest of the package and running it alone would help me, if I knew how. But I'd really like to see it's insides so I can discover what it's trying to do to the registry and file system.

Ruth Michels,
Network & PC Technician,
Grand Rapids Public Schools

[RobertDickau]

The IBD extension is a generic extension used by MSI, standing for "installer binary data". If a custom action is calling it, it's probably just a renamed EXE, DLL, or VBS file (though it's surely not VBS if you can't read the contents); perhaps right-click the file, select Properties, and see if there's a version resource that describes the file?