InstEd has 2 modes of operation.

The first mode is the usual GUI mode, enabling viewing and editing of msi files.

InstEd <msi1> [<msi2>...]

Version 1.5.4.16 or later.

The second mode is a console mode.

Because InstEd is natively a GUI application, and not a console application, cmd.exe will not wait on it to complete. In order to ensure that the console operates correctly, you will need to force cmd.exe to wait on InstEd. Therefore

Prefix all command line commands with
start /wait "<console window title>"

Perform ICE validation.

InstEd validate <ProfileName> <msi> [<mst>...] [-out:<out_file>]

  • ProfileName - A validation profile that has been configured from the InstEd GUI. Tables->Validate->*
  • <msi> - The path to the msi to validate.
  • [<mst>...] - One or more transforms to apply to the msi before validation.
  • [-out:<out_flle>] - The text file that the validation results will be stored in. Omitting this option will send the output to the console. In this case, it is imperative that the command begin with start /wait.

Rebuild the cabinets

This is only avilable with InstEd Plus versions later that 1.1.6.7.

InstEd plugin_cmd <msi> [<mst>...] -plugin:InstEdPlus rebuild_cabs [-media:<diskid1>[,<diskid2>]...]

  • plugin_cmd - Indicates to InstEd to run in console mode and call plugin
  • <msi> - The path to the msi to load and pass to the plugin.
  • [<mst>...] - One or more transforms to apply to the msi before passing it to the plugin.
  • -plugin:InstEdPlus - Specifies that InstEdPlus is the plugin to handle the command.
  • rebuild_cabs - Specifies to rebuild the cabinets using the media tables.
  • [-media:<diskid1>[,<diskid2>]...] - A comma separated list of DiskId entries from the media table to rebuild. Leave the option out entirely to rebuild all cabinets.