How can I run a “Fix IT” silently?

Hi, Axel from the IE Escalation team again with a quick note on how to use a Microsoft Fix IT to remove IE 8 silently.

First, I would like to thank the “Fix IT” team for quickly answering my questions about the tools functionality!

When I first learned of the Microsoft Fix ITs being available, I wondered if they could be run silently.  The ability to use the tool silently can be a great advantage and appeals to a large IT community allowing these fixes to run without requiring user intervention - in other words, no prompts.  Luckily for us, Fix ITs are .MSI packages and so we can take advantage of the command line arguments available to accomplish our task!

I tested my theory using the IE Fix IT package that uninstalls IE8, and it works just fine!

You can download the IE 8 Uninstall Fix IT tool from KB957700!

Steps:

1. Open a cmd and change directory to %windir%\system32
2. Then type “msiexec /i uninstallie8.msi /quiet”

Note:   Please remember to remove the quotes from the command line above.  When executing from Vista, you should open the cmd window using elevated privileges! 

 

MSIEXEC Switches

  NOTE:   You can get the list by typing msiexec /? from command window!

Windows ® Installer. V 4.00.6001.0 msiexec /Option <Required Parameter> [Optional Parameter] Install Options                 </package | /i> <Product.msi>                                 Installs or configures a product                 /a <Product.msi>                                 Administrative install - Installs a product on the network                 /j<u|m> <Product.msi> [/t <Transform List>] [/g <Language ID>]                                 Advertises a product - m to all users, u to current user                 </uninstall | /x> <Product.msi | ProductCode>                                 Uninstalls the product Display Options                 /quiet                                 Quiet mode, no user interaction                 /passive                                 Unattended mode - progress bar only                 /q[n|b|r|f]                                 Sets user interface level                                 n - No UI                                 b - Basic UI                                 r - Reduced UI                                 f - Full UI (default)                 /help                                 Help information Restart Options                 /norestart                                 Do not restart after the installation is complete                 /promptrestart                                 Prompts the user for restart if necessary                 /forcerestart                                 Always restart the computer after installation Logging Options                 /l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x|+|!|*] <LogFile>                                 i - Status messages                                 w - Nonfatal warnings                                 e - All error messages                                 a - Start up of actions                                 r - Action-specific records                                 u - User requests                                 c - Initial UI parameters                                 m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information                                 o - Out-of-disk-space messages                                 p - Terminal properties                                 v - Verbose output                                 x - Extra debugging information                                 + - Append to existing log file                                 ! - Flush each line to the log                                 * - Log all information, except for v and x options                 /log <LogFile>                                 Equivalent of /l* <LogFile> Update Options                 /update <Update1.msp>[;Update2.msp]                                 Applies update(s)                 /uninstall <PatchCodeGuid>[;Update2.msp] /package <Product.msi | ProductCode>                                 Remove update(s) for a product Repair Options                 /f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>                                 Repairs a product                                 p - only if file is missing                                 o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)                                 e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed                                 d - if file is missing or a different version is installed                                 c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value                                 a - forces all files to be reinstalled                                 u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)                                 m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)                                 s - all existing shortcuts (default)                                 v - runs from source and recaches local package Setting Public Properties                 [PROPERTY=PropertyValue] Consult the Windows ® Installer SDK for additional documentation on the command line syntax.

 

More MSIEXEC Documentation:

Standard Installer Command-Line Options

• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372024(VS.85).aspx

Related Article:

• How to solve Internet Explorer 8 installation problems

 

Enjoy!

The IE Support Team

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2009
  Thanks for blogging on this Axel, and for all the support your team has provided to the Microsoft Fix it team! It is much appreciated!
• Anonymous
  December 12, 2012
  Thanks for this post, i will try that.
• Anonymous
  September 09, 2014
  all right additionally to that I would like to know how to use the fixit tool "Problem solving with un/installing programs".there must be a Parameter where I can define the software package I'd like to be repaired/uninstalled.On the other Hand the tool runs the SDIGNHOST.EXE somehow. maybe this would be the right way to do it?
• Anonymous
  September 09, 2014
  The comment has been removed