#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS INSTALL#
#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS ARCHIVE#
#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS PORTABLE#
#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS WINDOWS#

An option to add/remove right click context menu entries to Explorer for Extract and Explore is in Edit > Preferences.Īlso included in the zip archive is a command line version of LessMSI so you can extract an installer from Command Prompt or a script. We found LessMSI very effective at reading and extracting more tricky MSI files where other options occasionally failed to read the whole contents. All files can be selected for extraction or you can multi select with the mouse and the Shift/Ctrl keys. In addition to extracting files, the program also has some additional tabs to view the data tables from the package and to view the summary information stored inside the package (dates, languages, version numbers, publisher, and etc).īrowse or drop an MSI installer onto the window and the contents will be shown.

#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS PORTABLE#

Here we look at some dedicated MSI extractors, all are portable and don’t require installation.Ī portable and free utility designed specifically for the task of viewing and extracting files from MSI installer packages is LessMSI (a.k.a.

#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS WINDOWS#

View an MSI and Extract Files With a Dedicated ToolĪ specialist tool to extract the contents of windows Installer files should be the most effective and give the best results. We found WinRAR could open and extract from some MSI files that other archivers couldn’t. In general, they don’t really show or allow you to extract anything differently to 7-Zip, apart from WinRAR. Other free archiving software such as Bandizip and Peazip or paid offerings like WinRAR and PowerArchiver can also open MSI installer files.

You can also do similar with the 7-Zip > Extract context menu commands and extract the whole contents of the installer to a folder. With the 7-Zip window open, it’s easy to extract the whole MSI or individual files/folders by dragging and dropping them from the window or using the Extract button. As it behaves just like any other readable archive, you can simply right click on the file and choose 7-Zip > Open archive to open the MSI file for viewing. Probably the most popular free archiving utility, 7-Zip, is able to read and extract the contents of many MSI files.

Archivers are not as effective as other tools but they’re very useful programs to have installed anyway. Do note that this option is likely to be the least reliable option. View and Extract MSI Files with an ArchiverĪlthough an MSI installer file is more like a database than an archive, some archiving software can still read and extract its contents.

#MSI SOFTWARE PACKAGING TOOLS INSTALL#

Here we show you 6 solutions for viewing or extracting the contents of MSI install packages. If you are having issues installing a software package as an MSI file or want to get at the files inside, perhaps to make a program portable, there are ways to do it. Sometimes, even when a program might not need installation because there’s only a few files, an MSI installer is used. Software components for Windows Installer are integrated into Windows as standard and MSI packages can be used by system administrators and over networks for remote installations.Īn MSI file is often embedded inside an executable setup installer so its usage is invisible to the end user. They also have issues such as MSI files not being usable in Safe Mode. Windows Installer files are used extensively by Microsoft for updating and installing Windows and other related software. Windows Installer files are known as MSI files because of the file extension. Inno Setup, InstallShield, and Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) are applications that help create a setup installer, another is Microsoft’s own Windows Installer. There are several ways to install software and also a number of different solutions to create the setup file for end users to get the product installed.

Msi software packaging tools