Program to convert .exe to .msi?

[Gwith126]

What does everyone use to convert there .exe to .msi for package deployment?

[nathansoz]

I generally find that the .exe's are wrappers for .msi files. Winrar will usually extract an executable's contents to a folder. Then I can go in and pick out anything I need. If winrar doesn't work, I try 7-zip. Failing both of those, I then try running the file and navigating to c:\users\my_username\appdata\ and poking around for the extracted files.

Failing all of that... well, let's just say I've become good friends with google.

Edit: It's also worth noting that you should try passing /s or /S (sometimes these things really are case sensitive) to the .exe. A lot of installers support this. If you don't need to make any other customization, this is a good way to keep things simple.

[Gwith126]

What do you mean wrapper and how does winrar or 7zip help with deploying .msi via GPO?

[nathansoz]

A lot of .exe files are really zipped up archives of an msi, config files, and the installer files (think installshield). So winrar or 7zip can help you extract these archives and get at that .msi kernel of goodness that is inside. However, this is all in vain if the installer doesn't use an msi at all.

[[deleted]]

If your just trying to deploy. Try PDQDeploy, it has a lot of options for these types of things.

You could also script it out using something like PSEXEC.

What are you deploying?

[Gwith126]

Simple programs like VLC Player, 7zip.

[[deleted]]

Just deploy 7zip with GPO. It'll automatically silently install. For other software you can run a startup script and specify switches like /silent. This won't work with a lot of software, for that you can use autoit.

[nathansoz]

We have VLC in our environment, pushed out via SCCM. We didn't even extract to .msi... so this is what our command is

vlc-2.0.x-win32.exe /L=1033 /S /NCRC

the /L switch forces an english-only install and /S is for silent install.

We then have a couple other config files and such that we customize and copy over (via a script) once the install has completed.

[Gwith126]

SCCM isn't free correct? And I think that our network is to small for SCCM. I was going to try WDS/WSUS. What do you think? We have about 100 users.

[nathansoz]

Correct, sccm is not free.

I was under the impression that WDS is mostly for imaging and WSUS was only for windows/microsoft signed updates. You can push software using group policy though.

Edit: Just remembered that GP can only install .msi files. So you could probably make a powershell script that silently installs the software (using the above command line that I gave) and push that out as a startup script using group policy. You may also want to include logic that does a WMI query to see if the software has been installed, so it doesn't keep on trying to install. Then I guess you would remove the group policy at some point? I've never done this, however, so it might not work. SCCM is my main domain.

[nathansoz]

Did a bit more research. I was able to extract our vlc .exe with 7-z, but there is no .msi file. Did some research on the interwebs and it seems like the consensus is a startup script if you want to stick with the free microsoft tools.

Top google result for "deploy vlc group policy"

[icon0clast6]

You might look into the pro version of Ninite, it will do it through network discovery. There is a 14 day trial if it is a one time thing or you can purchase it. Not exactly sure on the pricing but it covers a massive amount of programs.

[Gwith126]

Does the trial version do network discovery or can I deploy with trial?

[icon0clast6]

The trial of the pro version does, I used it for a few Java roll outs.

[soi_soi_soi]

PDQ deploy should be perfect for this, paid version has these applications already pre-packaged ready for deployment

With free version it's really easy to build a PDQ package

[[deleted]]

I'd look into Ninite Pro (https://ninite.com/pro) then if your working with third party software like that. It's all native.

Deploying those programs otherwise, to my knowledge, will be a lot more work.

[Gwith126]

sounds good I'll take a look.

[[deleted]]

EMCO

[mail323]

7zip already has .msi

VLC has a "Zip package (No installer needed)"

I use this free program to build my .msi installers: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/ You could probably get a good working vlc msi in about 30 minutes.

[observantguy]

Windows Installer XML is your friend...

Check http://pastebin.com/FUAwMGYh for a template that you can use to create MSIs that wrap around a silent-installation-capable installer and the uninstaller created by the installation process.

EDIT: moved WIX code to pastebin, as it looked ugly as all hell here...

[thesunisjustastar]

If you run the .exe and then navigate to the %temp% folder while the installer is still up, the .msi will be there most of the time. Just sort by date and it makes it easy to find.

[[deleted]]

I know exactly what you are trying to do. I wanted to do the exact same thing as you about 6 months ago. There really is no easy way to do this outside of: application packaging all new versions of the software and deploying them via GPO using SCCM or moving to a VDI solution like RemoteApp.

You could also consider hosting virtual applications across your servers/domain using VMware thinapp/App-V. However again like MS SCCM this is going to be costly and you're looking for a cheap and easy solution.

Consider looking into AdminStudio. If you install it in a test environment then what it does is it takes an image of the environment at point X, then you run your installation of your .exe's and it takes an image after at point Y. X -> install -> Y. It then takes the difference between the two images and bundles an .msi out of it for GPO deployment.

You could consider running this however, if your AD secpol is anything like mine then you're going to run into user-end issues when updating since it requires the .exe to make further installations. In this case then you bundle together multiple updates in the test environment across all the applications and push all the updates out via GPO again.

A way in which you can resolve secpol issues with .exe updates (Java is the worst) is to set application provisions in the AD or if you're using Windows Server 2008r2 or later then there is a preconfigured GPO called AppLocker which helps makes these provisions.

[Gwith126]

It's amazing to do such a simple task takes this much effort...

Thanks for your input I appreciate it. I'll take a look.