How to run .msi files as an administrator

Starting in Windows Server 2012 the “Run as administrator” option no longer appears when right-clicking a .msi file. This may be a required step when installing certain applications onto your Windows Server. Below are some options to be able to run a .msi file as an administrator. As a single-use solution, you can run the .msi as an administrator from the Windows command prompt. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do so, type “CMD” in the Start menu or Start screen search box,…

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How to extract files from a .msi file using the Windows command line

Every once in a while I need to extract the content of a .msi file in order to customize a deployment for a particular network environment. Sometimes initializing the .msi installer will temporarily extract the files into C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp, but those files are removed once the installer exits. To extract files from a .msi file at the command line, type: msiexec /a PathToMSIFile /qb TARGETDIR=DirectoryToExtractTo For example, to extract files from f:\zenworks\zfdagent.msi into c:\zfd701 you would type:…

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