msi with files next to it (for GPO)

[jamin6900]

I am trying to build an msi that I thought would have been easy, I need to roll back a few dll's and register them. I want to distribute this through GPO which requires an msi, when I select the option for Active Directory (GPO) deployment it automatically selects the "msi with files next to it". This is the only successful msi installer I have managed to build that will run with the /a install which is needed for silent deployment through GPO. The trouble is, for the life of me I can not figure out HOW I am to use this msi with files next to it through GPO. I know I can copy files/folders with Group Policy Preferences, but I do not think that is how it is intended to be done. I have researched this phrase "msi with files next to it through GPO" for a few hours and can not come up with anything. This installer has proven to be one of the more difficult I have done. I would love to know how this is supposed to be deployed, but obviously would appreciate any suggestions if I should be doing this another way.

[Dan]

Hello,

In order to deploy a MSI through GPO you can follow this tutorial with related information for hints and guidance.

Please let us know if that helped.

Best regards,
Dan

[jamin6900]

Thanks Dan, but if you think I haven't read that page from beginning to end to try and see if it even mentions how to use "msi with files next to it" which seems to only be a feature of Advanced installer and no other product in existence.

If you can point me to an area that tells me how to use the msi with files next to it through Active Directory I would appreciate it. The page you pointed me to does not.

[jamin6900]

I would like to add, that I am a very experienced GPO person, not necessarily with software installs since we use SCCM mostly. I fully understand how pointing to the MSI would run that msi, what I do not know is what I do with the "files next to it" to get them to the computer that will be running the MSI. Just pointing to the msi will not account for the "files next to it", I am looking for where I put the "files next to it" so they end up on the computer that is trying to run the msi and ultimately putting the "files next to it" right along side the msi file.

Hope you see my disconnect, there is nothing anywhere telling me how to do this. My thought is to place it within the policy folder and not in the distribution point, but I really do not want to be toying with my enterprise AD controllers like that, I would much rather have a clear understanding of how to do this instead of continual trial error.

Thanks in advance.

[Dan]

Hello,

You have to make sure that you have the .MSI along with its files in the UNC path and Windows Installer should be able to deploy your package.

However, can you please tell us why the .MSI (with files inside) failed first time to be deployed through GPO?

As a side note, does the MSI installation success on a local machine? Does the installation fails when it is done silently?(e.g. msiexec.exe /i <path_to_msi> /qb).

Best regards,
Dan

[jamin6900]

Thanks for your response again. Today the installer seemed to make it through when I assigned it again and I did see that just having the outside resources of that msi build in the same distribution point were actually copied to the machine. The one thing that did strike me as odd though and ultimately did not do what I intended, was that the MSI actually copied those folders (ProgramFiles64Folder and ProgramFilesfolder) directly to the root of C: instead of writing the file with those folders to the proper c:\prorgam files (x86)\application or c:\program files\application folder which was strange and I would love to know why that happened. In the end, today I did see that the GPO was processing this install with a msi with resources inside of it. We have about 40 domain controllers globally so perhaps it just took some time to get AD up to speed with everything. I will say I a big fan of Advanced installer, but this has not been as easy of a task as I assumed it would be to just copy a dll and register it.