How can I modify(delete, Insert, Replace file) *.msi without unpack the *.msi file.


Thank in advance.

you could try grabbing M$'s MSI SDK... it contains a few interesting tools...

Hello phop007 !

.MSI files are no archives, they're installation packages for Windows Installer.

They're working basically with the Microsoft .CAB format, but it seems to be a new version since many files can't be extracted.

Just open the file, serach for "MSCF" (header of .CAB files) and dump the file from there until its end.

If you're lucky, you can extract the files. It's possible that they have many hex-digits before the real file name or even only hex-digits and no real file name.

But I would say it's not possible to replace any file in the installation package. The Microsoft specification says that a .MSI package isn't allowed to be modified after creation. And I must admit they do their job prety well.

The only way would be to create a transform package (.MST). You can add files there which are included in the installation too. This ones should overwrite files installed by the .MSI file. But you need to include not only the .MSI, but also the .MST, SETUP.EXE and a customized SETUP.INI with the software.

Try using *.msi /a

Hello mutante !

I'm sure you don't mean *.msi /a.

The correct syntax is "msiexec /a <file>.msi".

I totally forget that option. But it's possible to lock that option while creating the installation.

Double Click the .msi in a RAR package and it will open and display the contents for you

Signed,
-- FoxThree

Hello foxthree !

This doesn't work for me. I'm using v3.00 and compressed a .MSI package as .RAR.
When double-clicking on it inside the .RAR it will simply decompress and execute the .MSI file.

Hi DakienDX,
Tried winrar3 it only displays and extract msi files only.You can't add files using winrar and it only supports zip and rars

Yo Dakien!

Try WinRAR 3.00 on RV MSI package and you'll see that it displays the contents and allows you to extract them. This is the way I got to install RV 1.5 on my Win9x.

Signed,
-- FoxThree

Hello foxthree !

It works on .MSI file using the old .CAB file format, like Revirgin.

I tested it on three other files, two using the new format (hex digits before the filename) and one on an even newer format (only hex-digits and no filename) and none of them worked.

WinRAR doesn't handle these files, but the .CAB file shell-extension built into Windows.

Here is a plugin for Windows Co**ander.. with this you can read msi files

Thankz everybody!! I found Far Manager(wxx.rarlab.com)+Doc viewer plugin and this very helpful...