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Exe-To-Msi

Updated: 29 Jul 2010 | 22 comments
Thunder-man's picture
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Sometimes you just need a file in .msi format. Most silent installs, for example, require that you start with a .msi file instead of a .exe file. Here's a cool tool (written by Thunder-man) that does the conversion for you.

Exe-To-Msi makes it easy to unpack the Altiris SVS Setup file (Software_Virtualization_Agent.exe)

To instal Altiris SVS silent, we need the file "Software_Virtualization_Agent.msi"

With "Exe-To-Msi" we are able to get the setup file simply from the exe.

License: AJSL
By clicking the download link below, you agree to the terms and conditions in the Altiris Juice Software License
Support: User-contributed tools on the Juice are not supported by Altiris Technical Support. If you have questions about a tool, please communicate directly with the author by visiting their profile page and clicking the 'contact' tab.

Comments

erikw's picture
29
Mar
2007
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On the loose

Thunderman is on the loose.

Again a good tool.

Mache so weiter Frank. Ich geniesse deine tools, und kann sie auch gut benutzen.

Grusse Erik

Regards Erik www.DinamiQs.com Dinamiqs is the home of VirtualStorm (www.virtualstorm.org)

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riva11's picture
29
Mar
2007
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One more tool from our

One more tool from our fantastic tools creator.

Thanks !

PM

Thunder-man's picture
29
Mar
2007
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Again a good tool

Thanks you Erik, this is however only a small Tool.

Google English…
SVSLoad.com

erikw's picture
29
Mar
2007
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Small tool

The best tools are always the small ones.
Think of regmon and filemon.

Very small. Very useful, and a great enhancement in doing our work.

regards
Erik

Regards Erik www.DinamiQs.com Dinamiqs is the home of VirtualStorm (www.virtualstorm.org)

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waker1der's picture
30
Mar
2007
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Any other EXEs?

Thunder-man

Does this tool work for all EXEs? I get an error if try anything other than SVS.

Cheers
Ben

Thunder-man's picture
30
Mar
2007
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Other EXEs?

At the moment I have written "ExeToMsi" only for "Software_Virtualization_Agent.exe"

regards
Frank

Google English…
SVSLoad.com

trb48's picture
29
Mar
2007
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I am confused...

I have made tons of exes silently install. Why do we have to convert it to an msi? How does it help us? Most companies give all of their software the ability to be installed silently. Maybe there are other options that require an msi.

If anyone has any ideas, or can clarify I would really appreciate it.

-trb48

erikw's picture
29
Mar
2007
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Clarification

If you use Citrix, and want to install software with the installation manger, than you need a MSI.

It will not accept exe.

regards
Erik

Regards Erik www.DinamiQs.com Dinamiqs is the home of VirtualStorm (www.virtualstorm.org)

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sp47328's picture
28
Sep
2007
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i am confused

Msi wll compress the size of the application and it takes less time to install.Msi wll reduce the time,cost.All software companies pushing from server only thats why they are going for silent installation only.user cant able to cancel that installing application.

If you know already please ignore it.

Sreenivasulu Reddy

Sreenivasulu Reddy

Nitin Server Admin's picture
14
Aug
2009
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Reply

Hi,

If we need to deploy software from landesk server to any client then .msi package is only used and .exe cannot be deployed from landesk server.

If any query , do revert me.

And thanks to Thunder Man for an helpful tool.

Regards
Nitin S
Server Admin
Wipro Infotech

Grant_Hall's picture
15
Aug
2009
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Why are you posting to a

Why are you posting to a thread that is over 2 years old?? Please try not to do this, it only creates clutter that everyone has to look through. I don't know if you meant to do this, but in the future please be mindful of others before bringing up such old threads.

Thanks
Grant

Please don't forget to mark your thread solved with whatever answer helped you : )

Scott Jones's picture
30
Mar
2007
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Software Virtualization Agent .MSI

Altiris provides an SVS Agent .MSI with the SVS full product download at http://www.altiris.com/download.aspx?product=563. Full beta releases also include this.

The .MSI is for system administrators who need to customize the msiexec command line for centralized deployments (including silent install).

The .EXE is just an MSI wrapped with common command line options. It's provided on the Free for Personal Use download sites (and as an option in the regular product download) in the interest of simplicity for stand-alone installs.

Scott Jones
Business Critical Engineer, Endpoint Virtualization
Symantec Corporation
www.symantec.com
 

tfronza's picture
05
Apr
2007
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Sounds Interesting

IS this not doing something that Wise Package Studio already does for us? WPS allows you to REPACKAGE applications as MSI's and is that not what we're are doing here?

Thanks - Tom Fronza

Thunder-man's picture
05
Apr
2007
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Re: Sounds Interesting

I don´t have Wise Package Studio, but Wise Package has the switches

/S (silent)
/x x:\dirname (Extract)

See:
Universal Silent Switch Finder

regard
Frank

Google English…
SVSLoad.com

meme's picture
18
Sep
2007
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Thanks so much for a great

Thanks so much for a great tool!

jeremyboger's picture
27
Sep
2007
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Wise Package Studio

We, too, use the Wise Package Studio. I'm sure everybody that does not have it, though, appreciates having a tool to do what Wise Package Studio does for us.

Jeremy I. Boger
Network Technician
MSD of Lawrence Township

R-Vijay's picture
01
Oct
2007
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exe to MSI : Usage Suggestion

Yeah.. as Jeremy says, WPS, Installshield or any other installers willl be used to create a MSI.

Looking at the tool, one good use of this would be for installing applz on Vista.
Some legacy setup fails when tried installing on Windows Vista.
Hence one remediation for this case would be to make the legacy exe as a MSI and intall it.

This tool will be very helpful in doing that...

Great Job Dude... :)

Microsoft MVP [Setup-Deploy]
Weblog: www.msigeek.com

Bekir's picture
14
Aug
2009
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excellent tool, thanks a

excellent tool, thanks a bunch :)

Best regards,
Bekir Burak Durmaz

Albert Widjaja's picture
17
Aug
2009
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Convert any EXE file into .MSI for GPO deployment ?

Hi,

Does this tools work for all .exe ? I am planning to deploy a custom built software through WIndows GPO but for some reason it only accept .MSI, So I wonder if this tools can do such thing ?

thanks.

/* Infrastructure Support Engineer */

bsvedeborg@gmail.com's picture
27
May
2010
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Easy repackaging with EMCO MSI Package Builder

Hi all,

We use EMCO MSI Package Builder for our EXE to MSI repackaging tasks. It is able to repackage even complex installations sucesfully, such as Adobe tools, etc. Before ordering we tried other tools, but they were not so flexible. As far as I know, MSI Package Builder uses some advanced captiring mechanism, that is able to track changes of every running process separately, so after capturing we can see changes performed by every process and remove unwanted. Really cool feature, because with other repackagers that compare snapshots it isn't possible. Also price was importnat for us, so it's much lower then in Admin Studio.

P.S. They now have a Video Tour on website, so it shows main features in few minutes.

Regards,
Bjorn

bsvedeborg@gmail.com's picture
01
Feb
2011
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There is a site about EXE to

There is a site about EXE to MSI Repackaging. It has few articles that describe concepts of the process, so may be useful for someone who is new to this.

abav's picture
14
Jul
2011
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A free tool to wrap any .exe

A free tool to wrap any .exe installer to msi :

Exe to msi converter