ActiveX Cab installing a MSI

[John G]

I have a cab that I want to automatically install a MSI file. I get
the prompt to install the cab, but it doesnt seem to install the MSI
file. Plus I dont see it in Downloaded Programs


Also, I wanted to know how to get the cab to have a Publisher name.
Do I need to buy a certificate or is there another way to do that?

Here is what I have in my cab file:
Merge.cab
---merge.inf
---merge.msi
merge.Inf contents
===========================================
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
AdvancedINF=2.0

[Setup Hooks]
hook1=hook1

[hook1]
run=msiexec.exe /i "%EXTRACT_DIR%\merge.msi" /qn
==========================================

 

[Stephen Connolly]

I have a cab that I want to automatically install a MSI file. I get
the prompt to install the cab, but it doesnt seem to install the MSI
file. Plus I dont see it in Downloaded Programs

Also,  I wanted to know how to get the cab to have a Publisher name.
Do I need to buy a certificate or is there another way to do that?

Here is what I have in my cab file:
Merge.cab
---merge.inf
---merge.msi
merge.Inf contents
===========================================
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
AdvancedINF=2.0

[Setup Hooks]
hook1=hook1

[hook1]
run=msiexec.exe /i "%EXTRACT_DIR%\merge.msi" /qn
==========================================

If you enable logging using the logging policy in the registry (see
posts passim) you will at least be able to see whether the MSI was
actually launched and if it failed, why. Alternatively, you could
change the qn to qb! (or even delete it altogether temporarily) and
you would at least see some UI that might give some pointers.

The publisher name is inferred from the digital signature of the cab,
so if you want it not to be 'unknown publisher' you'll have to go cap
in hand to Verisign et al, unless this is for an 'in house'
deployment, in which case you can create your own certificate and use
a policy to make it trusted across your org. As Windows gets more anal
with every release a digital certificate is almost becoming mandatory
for software deployment.