Microsoft Silverlight - Convert exe into msi

In SCCM 2012 it's preferable to deploy software in the guise of Applications rather than as a Package. This means you need to use .msi installer files. Unfortunately not everything comes with a .msi installer file. In the case of Silverlight, it comes as a .exe. In order to turn this .exe into a .msi, follow the below steps:
 
Get hold of a copy of the Silverlight installer (either 32 or 64bit) from the MS site. Save it to c:\temp

Open up a command prompt and switch to the exe's directory (enter cd c:\temp).

Enter Silverlight.exe -x

At this point you should be met with a message box asking where you want to extract the files to. Leave the file path as default and click Ok.

Once the extraction is done, click OK. You should then see a bunch of new files appear in c:\temp.


One of the new files will be called Silverlight.7z. This is a zip file which you need to extract into the c:\temp folder using 7zip or something similar.


Make a quick note of the size of the Silverlight.msi file (should be tiny).

Change back to the command prompt window and enter msiexec /p silverlight.msp /a silverlight.msi which will merge the .msi file with the patch file.

Switch back to c:\temp, check the size of the silverlight.msi file - it should have increased in size. Also there will now be a new folder called PFiles.


You only need the PFiles folder and Silverlight.msi file to create an application in SCCM.