How do I find the MSI product version number using PowerShell?

Question

Our end deliverable has lot of MSI files.

I would ensure whether they has correct product name and product version.

I am using Orca and doing it manually.

Answer 1

The PowerShell module "Carbon" is awesome for doing exactly this.

I discovered it myself a few years ago while working a lot with PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), which requires the Product Code (a guid) of the MSI to install. It's possible to get the product code with PowerShell natively if the application is installed on a computer, same with the version number, but Carbon can do it from the MSI.

http://get-carbon.org/

Import-Module -Name Carbon
Get-MSI -Path C:\PathToMSI

Answer 2

(Sorry, don't have rep to just add a comment to the accepted answer)

The answer from @davidmartin was super helpful for me.

Only bit I needed to add was to close the object before returning the version otherwise a handle is kept open on the msi and later access can fail:

$View.GetType().InvokeMember("Close", "InvokeMethod", $Null, $View, $Null)

return $productVersion

Answer 3

This should have been an easy answer... To start with Windows Installer has a COM object you can use:

ProgID: WindowsInstaller.Installer

However when you create an object out of with PowerShell you don't get any of the properties or methods:

$object = New-Object -Com WindowsInstaller.Installer
$object | gm

...Nothing :-(

Apparently this is a problem with PowerShell and its type adapting system. See this blog post for a work around.

http://www.snowland.se/2010/02/21/read-msi-information-with-powershell/

If you use VBScript you shouldn't have this problem.

EDIT:

Here's some VBScript that will get the version I found:

Const msiOpenDatabaseModeReadOnly = 0
Dim msi, db, view

Set msi = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
Set db = msi.OpenDataBase("C:\Users\andy\Desktop\Module.msi", msiOpenDatabaseModeReadOnly)
Set view = db.OpenView("SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property` = 'ProductVersion'")
Call view.Execute()

GetVersion = view.Fetch().StringData(1)
Wscript.Echo GetVersion

You can call this from PowerShell:

$version = & cscript.exe /nologo GetVersion.vbs

Update! This type adaption problem was frustrating me and I wasn't happy with the VBS solution. After a bit of research I found a way to do this in PowerShell proper. I adapted code from his blog entry. Enjoy!

function Get-MsiDatabaseVersion {
    param (
        [string] $fn
    )

    try {
        $FullPath = (Resolve-Path $fn).Path
        $windowsInstaller = New-Object -com WindowsInstaller.Installer

        $database = $windowsInstaller.GetType().InvokeMember(
                "OpenDatabase", "InvokeMethod", $Null, 
                $windowsInstaller, @($FullPath, 0)
            )

        $q = "SELECT Value FROM Property WHERE Property = 'ProductVersion'"
        $View = $database.GetType().InvokeMember(
                "OpenView", "InvokeMethod", $Null, $database, ($q)
            )

        $View.GetType().InvokeMember("Execute", "InvokeMethod", $Null, $View, $Null)

        $record = $View.GetType().InvokeMember(
                "Fetch", "InvokeMethod", $Null, $View, $Null
            )

        $productVersion = $record.GetType().InvokeMember(
                "StringData", "GetProperty", $Null, $record, 1
            )

        $View.GetType().InvokeMember("Close", "InvokeMethod", $Null, $View, $Null)

        return $productVersion

    } catch {
        throw "Failed to get MSI file version the error was: {0}." -f $_
    }
}

Get-MsiDatabaseVersion "Installer.msi"