Hi Folks, Its time for yet another Guest Post; and we have Bhuvana writing for us. In this article she focuses on the command line arguments and the silent switches that can be used for msi and msp (un-installable patches). Bhuvana specializes in InstallShield & MSI Installers and her primary responsibility at work is “Build & Release” which includes creating Setups and Source Control Management.
She keeps all the details crisp in this table. I know that, this below chart will be as a printed one.. in your desks !!
| Install / Uninstall | Command Line Option | Silent Mode |
| MSI – Installation | msiexec /i “<msi file name with path>” [TRANSFORMS="<mst file name with path>"] | msiexec /i “<msi file name with path>” [TRANSFORMS="<mst file name with path>"] /qn |
| MSI – UnInstallation | msiexec /x <ProductGUID> | msiexec /x <ProductGUID> /qn |
| MSP – Installation | Command line with Progress dialog: msiexec /p “<msp file name with path>” /qb |
msiexec /p “<msp file name with path>” /qn |
| Command line with UI: msiexec /p “<msp file name with path>” REINSTALLMODE=oums REINSTALL=ALL |
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| MSP – Uninstallation | Command line with Progress dialog: Msiexec /package <ProductGUID> MSIPATCHREMOVE=<PatchGUID> /qb |
msiexec /I <ProductGUID> MSIPATCHREMOVE=<PatchGUID> /qn |
Note:
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Bhuvana’s Thought on Msigeek.com:
I came across MSIgeek blog through linkedin groups. Good to see lots of articles and FAQs on MSI at one stop. Some of the articles definitely helps to give a better insight into the concepts. So felt like contributing some article, which would help people like us, the Packaging specialists.
If you want to get in touch, her LinkedIn Profile is - Here. (PS: Do mention in the LinkedIn request that, you read her article on msigeek. We do not want to give her un-necessary Spams 
)
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Vijay is a passionate Technology Evangelist and expertised in Application Setup and Deployment. He is a Microsoft MVP and STEP Member for Windows 7. 
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Good article,
Small doubt, any idea Why Ptach uninstallation doesnot work without “/qb” option?
Thanks Bhuvana for this article in MSIGeek, I am also a fan of MSIGeek.
VJ,
Thanking you
If any plan posting article on creating TRANSORMS? will help much profs like me to learn basics of packaing
Nice article, sure will be of use to Admins.
Good one.I attached this printout on my desk.
Hi Vivek
Thanks for your feed back.
If you enter the command 'Msiexec /package <ProductGUID> MSIPATCHREMOVE=<PatchGUID>' without /qb option, it displays the maintenance dialog.
Regards
Bhuvana
Awesome post Bhuvana
Very gud.. its quite informative..
very useful and informative article.
I am glad that it was useful
Great Post Vj, an aditional comment, you can set to install more than one msp file in the same command line, with ; between the msp filename. Example: msiexec /p “name1.msp”;”name2.msp” /qn
Thanks for your addition buddy.! Well, Bhuvana gets the credit for this nice post (not me) he he..!!
Thanks for supporting the blog Vivek. Your idea is really soooper cool. We will write an article on MST (Transforms) and post it soon.
very useful article
@ Bhuvana,
Thanks a lot on clarifying the doubt
@ VJ,
Great VJ, learning abcd of Packaging now. This blog alwayz a handbook for me. Your tech updates and Winodows 7 articles are sooper
Very useful article …
I want to thank the blogger very much not only for this post but also for his all previous efforts. I found http://www.msigeek.com to be greatly interesting. I will be coming back to http://www.msigeek.com for more information.