MSI file can't be called by msiexec.exe: "This installation package could not be opened"

[takupaz-dance]

Hello everyone,

We are evaluating (using trial version) the MSI installer feature of Advanced Installer 20.6. We are interested in building MSI installers for silent deployment to workstations in our LAN.

We build a demo MSI installer but can't use any silent installation parameters.
We tried

Code: Select all

msiexec -i .\DEMO.msi /quiet

but nothing happened. Then we tried

Code: Select all

msiexec -i .\DEMO.msi

and we saw an error message:
This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package.

This makes us can't deploy any MSI installer made by Advanced Installer into our environment.


We tried to do the following:

Check if we are running the newest version of Advanced Installer.
- the newest version is 20.6, as of May 1, 2023.

Check "This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package. "
- this is not related to this problem. We are not running any .EXE installation under the SYSTEM account. We are running .MSI installation.

Check if we are running the installation with Administrator privilege.
- We are running this .MSI by admin.

Check if our test environment is corrupted.
- We tried running this .MSI on other PCs running Windows 10 Pro 22H2 or Windows 11 Pro 22H2. All PCs gave the same error.


Thanks in advance.

Regards

[Catalin]

Hello and welcome to our forums,

I would say that this is specific to your machine, rather than it being an issue with your installer.

In this specific case, I would suggest the following - make sure your MSI is not opened/kept in use by any other process. For this, you can check and make sure no other Windows Installer instances are running in the background, perhaps your MSI is somewhat stuck in the background

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin

[takupaz-dance]

Thank you so much for your insight.

Unfortunately, this is not a machine-specific issue in our environment.

We tried running this .MSI on multiple other workstations running Windows 10 Pro 22H2 or Windows 11 Pro 22H2.

All PCs gave the same error.

Hello and welcome to our forums,

I would say that this is specific to your machine, rather than it being an issue with your installer.

In this specific case, I would suggest the following - make sure your MSI is not opened/kept in use by any other process. For this, you can check and make sure no other Windows Installer instances are running in the background, perhaps your MSI is somewhat stuck in the background

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin

[Catalin]

Hello,

This is really strange.

If possible, could you please forward me the following resources:

- a copy of your .AIP file

- a download link for the MSI

by email at support at advancedinstaller dot com so I can run some tests and further investigate this on my end?

Best regards,
Catalin

[takupaz-dance]

Hello,

This is really strange.

If possible, could you please forward me the following resources:

- a copy of your .AIP file

- a download link for the MSI

by email at support at advancedinstaller dot com so I can run some tests and further investigate this on my end?

Best regards,
Catalin

Hello Catalin,

We just noticed that is is not a problem with the environment running .MSI file.

We build our .MSI file on another workstation and it ran flawlessly.

This is a problem related to the environment buliding .MSI file, and we decided to reimage the workstation with this issue.

[Catalin]

Hello,

Thank you for your followup on this and for sharing your solution with us!

I am glad you managed to find the culprit.

Best regards,
Catalin