David Williams Technical


Endpoint Management & Deployment – MDM Management – Scripting – Cyber Security Engineering – Application Configuration & Deployment

How to Extract a MSI from an EXE

This is quite a simple process. I use it all the time during the application deployment process. I like to have access to both versions of an installer incase I find that the original MSI file does not deploy correctly, or if I need to configure some parameters using switches. Using this method allows you to copy the MSI to the same directory as the EXE.

Please note that this does not apply to every EXE but its always worth checking.

  1. Firstly, download an EXE and place it into a folder.
  1. Right-click the EXE and select Run as Administrator. Let the installer load up but do not interact with it, just leave it open in the background.
  1. Go to: C:\Users\%User%\AppData\Local\Temp or type %temp% in the File Explorer.
  1. Locate the file that contains the MSI installer. 

Note: To locate the file containing the installer use the Date Modified column to narrow down the time. It should be the top folder as you will have just started the installation process.

  1. Copy the MSI to the directory that contains the EXE.
  1. Close the installer. This will remove the MSI from the temporary files folder so ensure that the file has fully copied to the new directory before closing the installer.

You now have access to the EXE and the MSI file. You can create a script and run the installer as an EXE using basic switches or a more detailed MSI install script through the command prompt.

David Williams

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