Windows – the best (free) tool to wrap an .exe into a MSI

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I'm looking at deploying some software via GPSI and the current version of the software is distributed as a .exe so I need to convert it to an MSI file.

furthermore, why does MS still distribute some of its software (WMI Tools) as .exe

Best Answer

The type of tool you're looking for is called an Application Repackaging tool. The process would include capturing an installation (take a machine snapshot, run your installation and make customisations, then run a second snapshot to calculate the differences) then compiling the captured data into MSI format.

The following are some free tools to perform these tasks, in order:

  1. AppDeploy Repackager: Use this to capture your installation and create an MSI from the captured data. If your app is reasonably simple then this may be all you need.
  2. Microsoft Orca: Use this to edit the MSI that has been created with AppDeploy Repackager. You will need to know how MSI's work to really make the most of Orca. Microsoft's Installer Database Reference is the definitive source for information on MSI contents.

As for your second question: You will find that sometimes vendors will supply an MSI wrapped in an executable, so if you run the .exe you might be able to dig out the MSI from a temp directory.

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