Editing an MSI? Use ORCA! or (How I use ORCA to edit Steady State to install in Windows 7 )

This is an old trick, not exactly an MDT trick per say, but it’s still deployment related and still works like a charm. If you’re deploying software, you’re probably using MSIs. Sometimes there’s just no easy way around it – you need to edit said MSIs, or you need to build a transform file. There’s lots of ways to do this, but I prefer the easy way. The easy way is ORCA, it’s an old tool that’s been around for a while, and yes you can get old versions from some pretty shady locations, but the best thing to do is to get the latest and greatest from MS via the latest Windows SDK.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk

Don’t panic, you don’t need the whole thing. When you run the wizard, just install the MSI tools. Once that’s completed, browse to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86

What do we have here? The MSI installer for ORCA!

And yes, now I can install and Steady State in Windows 7 now because I removed the Launch Conditions that only allow it to install in XP or Vista, granted this is highly unsupported, but it works, and makes MacGyver proud.

Questions? Comments? Contact Me on The ASKMDT Guy Page.