Editing MSI Files

I've been watching the hits on my weblog and find that a number of folks are looking for more information about Orca - a free Microsoft .MSI file editing tool. Orca enables you to do some basic .MSI table editing including simple things such as fixing a condition that stops an MSI file installing. You can get ORCA from Microsoft. However, contrary to KB article 255905, Microsoft seem to have removed orca.msi.

There is probably an easier way, but I did the following to get this:

• Install the Platform SDK
• Install the MSI SDK
• Open up C:\program files\Microsoft SDK\bin - and there is orca.msi.
• Run orca.msi to install Orca

Like I said, there MUST be an easier way.

If I get a chance, I'll do a deeper writeup of Orca for my ESM column.