transform - Can the resulting command line be determined after running an .msi installer?

Question

If I want a silent install, is there any simple way of running the installer, selecting the desired options and then determining the msiexec options/switches necessary for an equivalent installation? (Preferably without actually installing anything - not clicking finish)

Or is digging through the MSI database all you can do to find the desired properties?

Answer 1

Yes, it sounds like you need to create a response transform (MST). A lot of the tools linked to above are premium tools (not worth paying for a response transform!!) but I used this a while ago (this tool is free) and it seemed to work well:

http://www.jontylovell.net/index.php?page=10

Once you create your response transform with your installation configuration, you then need to specify the transform on the command line with:

MSIEXEC /I {Path To MSI} TRANSFORMS={Path the response MST} /qn