I am writing a InstallerClass using C# as a custom action for my installer, and I can successfully run an external exe (installation) using the
InstallerClass
C#
Have you tried using the /Q or /QB parameter that is listed in the Installation parameters? It might look something like this:
/Q
/QB
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "/Q";
I got that out of this document: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144259(v=sql.100).aspx