Setup Decompressor

[cmclendon]

I am trying to decompress a .msi that was created with the InstallShield that is included in Visual Studio (integrated into the IDE). This is the output from the decompress:

MSI: C:\\Documents and Settings\\Christopher.CORP\\Desktop\\Release\\New Folder\\MomPosDemoSetup.msi
unStream Binary.UpFldrBtn
unStream Binary.VSDNETCFG
unStream Icon._4ae13d6c.exe
unStream Icon._2cd672ae.exe
unStream Binary.MSVBDPCADLL
unStream Binary.NewFldrBtn
unStream Binary.DefBannerBitmap
unStream _B0059041E17F6EF5D6DDF62721B59C22
unCAB: C:\\DOCUME~1\\CHRIST~1.COR\\LOCALS~1\\Temp\\7F7F30CF-D020-4BB5-B960-F41BE62ED71B\\MomPosDemoSetup.msi.tmp\\MomPosDemoSetup.stream.8
reCAB: C:\\DOCUME~1\\CHRIST~1.COR\\LOCALS~1\\Temp\\7F7F30CF-D020-4BB5-B960-F41BE62ED71B\\MomPosDemoSetup.msi.tmp\\MomPosDemoSetup.stream.8
reStream _B0059041E17F6EF5D6DDF62721B59C22
unStream SummaryInformation

However, I don't see any files extracted from the decompress. Am I missing something here? This is a very simple MSI and only includes a few small files.

[sinan]

This tool extracts an MSI (or MSM, or in some cases EXE) setup, and then puts it back together in uncompressed form. So in your case, it found one compressed CAB inside the MSI, which according to the log you pasted, it uncabbed then recabbed (but without compression).

The next effect is that you may now add this setup to a master InstallAware installation and leverage InstallAware's superior compression levels. Decompression is necessary because no matter how good a compression algorithm is, it cannot recompress data that was previously compressed, even compressed data coming from inferior algorithms.

If you are looking for a way to decompile the MSI setup, or to extract the CAB files it contains, the Setup Decompressor is the wrong tool for that purpose (but we do have a new tool that will be available very soon for that purpose )

[cmclendon]

Great - a .msi decompiler would be very useful for repackaging. Is there a way to automate the silent install of an embedded .msi or does this script need to be hand crafted?

[sinan]

Its actually a single script command, called (Un)Install MSI Setup. I recommend you follow this procedure:

1) Add the MSI to your setup as a support file/creative
2) Insert an (Un)Install MSI Setup command to your script
3) Under the Action tab, click one of the buttons to automatically generate a basic MSI command line to pass to the package (ex: click Install), or customize the command line
4) Switch to the Package tab, choose the Use Package File option
5) Enter your package file path as follows: $SUPPORTDIR$\\msifile.msi

Click OK, and that's it

Depending on how you want to time the child MSI file execution, you may want to place the (Un)Install MSI Setup command before or after the Apply Install command in your script.