Silent run installer (.exe) with parameters on Windows

I have a windows setup file (.exe), which is used to install a software. This is a third party executable. During installation, it expects certain values and has a UI. I want to run this setup .exe silently without any manual intervention (even for providing the parameter values). After spending some time googling about the approach, I feel powershell should be able to help me with my requirements. Can anyone suggest if powershell would be the right tool for this, or does a better tool exists to get this requirement? Can python be used to implement this requirement?

Please note: Since this is a third party executable, I don't have the names of the parameters for which values must be provided to the UI during installation

Thank you

Solution 1:

Deployment: Note that it is not always possible to run a setup.exe silently with full control of parameters and with reliable silent running. It depends on how the installer was designed. In these cases I normally resort to repackaging - some more detail below on this.

Some general tips for dealing with deployment:

1. Software Library Tip: Maybe try to look up the software to see if others have dealt with it for silent installation and deployment: https://www.itninja.com/software

2. Extract Files: Is this an embedded MSI (Windows Installer) file or a legacy style setup.exe? Maybe try to extract the files first: Programmatically extract contents of InstallShield setup.exe (Installshield setup.exe files). More elaborate details:

   • How to run an installation in /silent mode with adjusted settings (extraction of non-Installshield setup.exe files - for example Advanced Installer or WiX setup.exe files)
   • Extract MSI from EXE

3. Setup.exe: Just adding for completeness. You can try setup.exe /? or setup.exe /help or similar at the command line to check for embedded help in the exe.

MSI Transforms: If you discover and embedded MSI file in the setup.exe, then you can customize the installation parameters in a standardized way. details here: How to make better use of MSI files. Light weight customization is by command line, heavy weight customization via transforms.

Legacy Setup.exe: Legacy setup.exe are often created with Inno Setup, NSIS, or a few other non-MSI setup authoring tools. Each with their own quirks for command line. Here is an old source for some samples: http://unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.php.

Repackaging: Corporate users often repackage such legacy setup.exe files and turn them into MSI or App-V packages (or the brand new MSIX format). On the topic of repackaging and also a piece on PowerShell and the availability of Windows Installer PowerShell Modules: How can I use powershell to run through an installer?.

Some Further Links:

• How to create windows installer
• System Administrator deployment tools, including repackaging tools