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Extract Bundled .MSI's / Executable's

sanderson
By Level 2 Flexeran
Level 2 Flexeran

How do you extract bundled .msi’s or executable s out of admistudio? (is it repackage then edit with Installshield?)

(1) Solution

Thanks @sanderson, this is a fairly common question we get.  Of course, MSIs are easier to work with and deploy, so if there is a way to get to the underlining MSI installer for a particular application (if there exists one), then that's the best way to go.

AdminStudio can perform extraction of MSIs from certain EXEs for the purposes of OS Compatibility Testing within the Application Manager.  However, it doesn’t perform this extraction for the user to take and use the MSIs directly. Partially, this is because not all MSIs extracted out of an EXE setup (typically called a setup bootstrap) can work by themselves.

This page provides a very good and succinct discussion of extracting MSI installers from EXEs: https://www.codetwo.com/kb/msi-from-exe/

Note: this is a third-party site that Flexera is in no way affiliated

This also assumes that the underlining installer is a Windows Installer-base setup. Not all EXEs have MSIs inside to extract them.  For certain EXEs, there is no way to perform any extraction as the installer logic is contained in and performed by the EXE itself. In this case, repackaging this kind of setup using AdminStudio's Repackager tool would result in a brand new, MSI-based setup that would replicate the end result of the original EXE installer. A virtual machine would typically be used here to perform the initial capturing of the original installer and allows for easy reverting back to a clean state after the capture has been completed and the captured information and Repackager project is saved elsewhere.

Expert Flexeran on AdminStudio, Workflow Manager, and Software Vulnerability Manager / Research
If I've answered your question, please mark my response as "Accept as Solution" to help others find answers. Thanks!

View solution in original post

(1) Reply

Thanks @sanderson, this is a fairly common question we get.  Of course, MSIs are easier to work with and deploy, so if there is a way to get to the underlining MSI installer for a particular application (if there exists one), then that's the best way to go.

AdminStudio can perform extraction of MSIs from certain EXEs for the purposes of OS Compatibility Testing within the Application Manager.  However, it doesn’t perform this extraction for the user to take and use the MSIs directly. Partially, this is because not all MSIs extracted out of an EXE setup (typically called a setup bootstrap) can work by themselves.

This page provides a very good and succinct discussion of extracting MSI installers from EXEs: https://www.codetwo.com/kb/msi-from-exe/

Note: this is a third-party site that Flexera is in no way affiliated

This also assumes that the underlining installer is a Windows Installer-base setup. Not all EXEs have MSIs inside to extract them.  For certain EXEs, there is no way to perform any extraction as the installer logic is contained in and performed by the EXE itself. In this case, repackaging this kind of setup using AdminStudio's Repackager tool would result in a brand new, MSI-based setup that would replicate the end result of the original EXE installer. A virtual machine would typically be used here to perform the initial capturing of the original installer and allows for easy reverting back to a clean state after the capture has been completed and the captured information and Repackager project is saved elsewhere.

Expert Flexeran on AdminStudio, Workflow Manager, and Software Vulnerability Manager / Research
If I've answered your question, please mark my response as "Accept as Solution" to help others find answers. Thanks!