Programmatically installing MSI packages

Question

I would like to install a given .msi package programmatically from my C# .NET application, preferably with the installation parameters that my application specifies (like th

Answer 1

The basic Win32 API (that can be pinvoked if necessary) is MsiInstallProduct. This is where practically all other mentioned APIs and calls will end up.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370315(v=vs.85).aspx

Just pass the full path to the MSI file and your command line (including quiet options etc) and check the result to see if it installed correctly.

Note that there is a simple p/invoke declaration for managed code:

[DllImport("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError=true)]

static extern UInt32 MsiInstallProduct(string packagePath, string commandLine);