MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Clean Up the Windows Start Menu

Sometimes after installing a setup.exe with limited command line switches, we may want to clean up the Windows start menu. Usually as part of our Application Packaging best practises we remove ‘Uninstall’ shortcuts, ‘Update’ shortcuts, and shortcuts to readme’s and...

January 12, 2018

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Access a Windows Installer property in a Deferred Custom Action

Description: This post describes how to access a Windows Installer property in a Deferred Custom Action. Deferred, commit, and rollback custom actions can only access a limited number of built-in Windows Installer properties – CustomActionData, ProductCode, and UserSID. In brief...

October 30, 2014

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Use VBScript to amend the the Hosts/Services or any other text file

Description: This post shows how to use VBScript to amend the the Hosts/Services or any other text file. It contains two scripts to add/remove lines of text. This example adds to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\Services file. Source: N/A Script: Add to Services file...

October 30, 2014

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Create a Nested Folder Structure using VBScript

Description: The Filesystem Object cannot create a nested folder structure in a single invocation of the CreateFolder method. For example, if we tried executing the following code it would return a ‘Path Not Found’ error unless c:\alkanesolutions\ already exists: objFSO.CreateFolder “c:\alkanesolutions\test\” The function below resolves...

May 12, 2014

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Extract an EXE from the binary table and run it from a VBScript Custom Action

Somebody over at ITNinja recently asked how they could run an executable stored in the binary table, from a VBScript Custom Action. Here’s an example I knocked up which describes how to extract an EXE from the binary table and...

August 1, 2013

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Alternatives to using WScript.Sleep in a Custom Action

Description: Sometimes in our Custom Actions we need to pause the script execution, for example when we’re manipulating processes. Since we can’t use Wscript.Sleep from a Custom Action we need another way of pausing the execution of a script. Here...

April 18, 2013

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Kill One or Many Processes

Description: Useful when we want to terminate processes during uninstall. Sometimes when processes are still running during uninstall it may cause the uninstall to fail or not remove all files. This script is an example of how to kill one...

April 18, 2013

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Check if a Folder is Empty (contains no files and no subfolders)

Description: Useful when we want to delete folders which have been left behind after uninstall, but we first need to check that the folder is actually empty!! An example may be a folder named as the vendor (E.g, ‘Adobe’), where...

February 20, 2013

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Delete a File from multiple User Profiles

Description: This post describes how to delete a file from multiple user profiles (normal.dot in this example). Also has the ability to exclude certain profile folders. Could be easily combined with this script to delete folders/subdolfers and files from each profile:...

January 4, 2013

MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Delete a Registry Key and its Subkeys

A script to delete a registry key and its subkeys via a Custom Action. Useful for when we want to delete junk registry which has been left behind post uninstall. Source: technet.microsoft.com Script: Option Explicit Dim intHive Dim strComputer Dim...

September 18, 2011

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Category: MSI (Windows Installer) Custom Actions

Clean Up the Windows Start Menu

Access a Windows Installer property in a Deferred Custom Action

Use VBScript to amend the the Hosts/Services or any other text file

Create a Nested Folder Structure using VBScript

Extract an EXE from the binary table and run it from a VBScript Custom Action

Alternatives to using WScript.Sleep in a Custom Action

Kill One or Many Processes

Check if a Folder is Empty (contains no files and no subfolders)

Delete a File from multiple User Profiles

Delete a Registry Key and its Subkeys

PowerShell Script Support for Installing and Uninstalling Intune Win32 Applications

Use PowerShell to Read MSI Windows Installer Properties

Evergreen Application Packaging converting Winget to MSIX

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