{"id":1140,"date":"2011-01-11T15:39:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T10:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2021-05-29T09:43:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T04:13:27","slug":"extract-msi-contents-add-extract-all-right-click-menu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/extract-msi-contents-add-extract-all-right-click-menu\/","title":{"rendered":"Extract Contents of .MSI File and Add “Extract All” to Right-Click Menu"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are situations when you need to pick a single file from a .msi package without going through the installation phase. One good example is that a stand-alone or portable application wrapped in a .msi package. Or, you may need to extract a particular wallpaper image from a theme installer.<\/p>\n

In that case, you can avoid running the setup and extract the contents of the .msi package manually. Thus there won’t be a need for a System Restore point, the addition of several registry keys, and a few temporary directories (which would be the case if you run the setup).<\/p>\n

No third-party tools are needed; you can do this using the Windows Installer executable msiexec.exe<\/code> command-line.<\/p>\n

How to Extract the Contents of an .MSI File<\/h2>\n

I’ve got the ChristmasTheme .msi package downloaded from the Microsoft site and would like to extract the background wallpaper from the package.<\/p>\n

To extract the package, use the following command-line example from the Run dialog or Command Prompt:<\/p>\n

msiexec \/a \"d:\\downloads\\ChristmasTheme.msi\" \/qb TARGETDIR=\"d:\\downloads\\theme files\"<\/pre>\n
And here it is!<\/p>\n
\"extract<\/p>\n
And the wallpaper image I was looking for is this, located under the Web\\Wallpaper<\/b> folder.<\/p>\n
\"chrismas<\/p>\n
To extract .msi file contents even easier, you can implement the command to your right-click context menu.<\/p>\n
Adding “Extract All” Right-Click Option for .MSI Files<\/h3>\n
Download msi-extract-all-menu.zip<\/a>, unzip and run the REG file included in the archive. This adds the “Extract All” option to the right-click menu for .msi files.<\/p>\n
\".msi<\/p>\n
Clicking “Extract All” is all you need to do. It runs the msiexec.exe command-line in the background. The package contents will be extracted to a folder with the same name as the source file, appended by the word “Files” — e.g., “ChristmasTheme.msi Files”<\/p>\n
\n
Third-party tools to extract .MSI file contents<\/h3>\n
7-Zip<\/h4>\n
You can use 7-Zip, PeaZip, WinRar, or any other archive utility to view and extract the contents of .msi files.<\/p>\n
\"extract<\/p>\n
LessMSI<\/h4>\n
LessMSI is another utility that can open and extract the contents of .msi files.<\/p>\n
\"extract<\/p>\n
LessMSI also comes with a command-line tool (lessmsi.exe is CLI and lessmsi_gui.exe is the GUI version.)<\/p>\n
LessMSI – Command-line example:<\/strong><\/p>\n
lessmsi x d:\\downloads\\ChristmasTheme.msi d:\\downloads\\theme\\<\/pre>\n
The above command extracts the .msi file contents to the “d:\\downloads\\theme\\” directory.<\/p>\n
(However, if you need to extract via command-line, msiexec.exe will do the job for you, anyway. You don’t need LessMSI CLI for that purpose.)<\/em><\/p>\n
You can download LessMSI from GitHub<\/a>. The product’s home page is https:\/\/lessmsi.activescott.com\/<\/code><\/p>\n
UniExtract 2<\/h4>\n
UniExtract2<\/a> or “Universal Extractor 2” is a tool to extract files from any type of archive or installer.:<\/p>\n
\".msi<\/p>\n
This tool is only a front-end that uses CLI binaries of different programs like 7-Zip, LesMSI, ARC, etc. The binaries are stored in the UniExtract\\bin<\/code> folder.<\/p>\n
(Last reviewed on May 29, 2021. The instructions apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 10)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are situations when you need to pick a single file from a .msi package without going through the installation phase. One good example is that a stand-alone or portable application wrapped in a .msi package. Or, you may need to extract a particular wallpaper image from a theme installer. In that case, you can … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1041,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/install-msi-packages-logging-right-click-menu\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":0},"title":"Install MSI Packages With Logging via the Right-Click Menu","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When a software installation that uses the Windows Installer Package fails, you enable Windows Installer logging and re-run the setup to capture the output to a log file for troubleshooting. Logging can be done using the Registry Editor, the Group Policy Editor, or the msiexec.exe command with the required parameters.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":".msi with logging context menu - registry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/msi-verbose-logging-registry-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/msi-verbose-logging-registry-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/msi-verbose-logging-registry-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/msi-verbose-logging-registry-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8697,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-installer-folder-safe-cleanup-free-disk-space\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":1},"title":"How to Clean Up the Windows Installer Cache Folder","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When you install a program in Windows, the program's .msi or .msu setup package gets copied to the C:\\Windows\\Installer folder. 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The Installer directory is intended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Utilities"","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"uninstall program failed missing .msi installer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/uninstall-failed-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/uninstall-failed-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/uninstall-failed-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/uninstall-failed-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51486,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/installation-package-could-not-open-verify-valid\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":2},"title":"Installation package could not be opened; verify if this is a valid package","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"When you try to install a program by running the .msi package, the following error may occur: This installation package could not be opened. 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