msiexec - How do I specify a blank TARGETVDIR?

Question

We recently upgraded one of our applications from .net 2.0 to .net 3.5 and we have run into an issue with the installer. Essentially the msi auto populates the Virtual Directory field when we want it to be blank. This wouldn't be such an issue except that I cannot figure out how to set the virtual directory blank from the command line.

Currently I have

msiexec /i $(InstallerPath)\AppInstaller.msi /qn TARGETVDIR=

And I get the error The folder path 'CURRENTDIRECTORY="C:' contains an invalid character.

. produces The folder path '.' contains an invalid character

Quotes do not work at all.

What can I do to specify a blank Virtual Directory?

EDIT

Using How do I change the default Virtual Directory name during a web service install? I tried to manually set it blank in the installer project. However, it is already blank!

Does it executes from MSBuild `Exec` task? single quotes should work `` — KMoraz, Jan 13 '12 at 21:35
Why not fix the installer source? if you don't have the source you can use `orca.exe` — KMoraz, Jan 15 '12 at 09:47
The following link helped me to resolve the issue: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/9766b2ef-b743-4a0a-b73b-576dd505e7c4/setting-targetvdir-to-empty-at-command-line?forum=winformssetup. — santosh kumar patro, Oct 04 '13 at 13:43
@santoshkumarpatro Thanks! For this project I eventually switched to a file copy deployment as the installers were taking too long. — Biff MaGriff, Oct 08 '13 at 21:53

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 28 '15 at 08:43

0

Stuck into the same question... I've used space to achieve it and it worked.

Example:

> WebSetup1.msi TARGETAPPPOOL="Test" TARGETSITE="/LM/W3SVC/2" TARGETVDIR=" "

Installer UI

answered Jan 28 '15 at 08:43

Eugene D. Gubenkov

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msiexec - How do I specify a blank TARGETVDIR?

1 Answers1