Add Context Menu Option to Extract / Unpack Files from MSI (Microsoft Installer) Package

A Microsoft Installer (MSI) package contains various files which are extracted and installed in your system once you run the MSI file.

If you don't want to run MSI file but want to view its content, this tutorial will help you.

This tutorial will help you in adding "Unpack" option to MSI file context menu so that you can extract / unpack MSI package files quickly and easily.

Once you select "Unpack" option from an MSI file context menu, it'll extract the MSI package and will put all the files in a new folder with the name "MSI_file_name Content".

So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:

1. Type regedit in RUN or startmenu search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes

3. Under "classes" key, create a new key Msi.Package

4. Under "Msi.Package" key, create a new key shell

5. Under "shell" key, create a new key Unpack

6. Under "Unpack" key, create a new key command

So the final registry path would be:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Msi.Package\shell\Unpack\command

7. Select command key and in right-side pane, change value of default to:

msiexec.exe /a "%1" /qb TARGETDIR="%1 Content"

That's it. Now you can access the option in MSI file context menu.

PS: If you want a ready-made registry script to do the task automatically, simply download following ZIP file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. It'll ask for confirmation, accept it: