Run MsiExec from PowerShell and get Return Code

Question

With BAT/CMD script I can simply use "msiexec /i <whatever.msi> /quiet /norestart" and then check %errorlevel% for the result.

With VBScript, using the Wscript.Shell object Run() method, I can get the result like this:

"result = oShell.Run("msiexec /i ...", 1, True)"

How can I do this with PowerShell?

Solution 1

I would wrap that up in Start-Process and use the ExitCode property of the resulting process object. For example

(Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList "<<whatever>>" -Wait -Passthru).ExitCode

Solution 2

$LastExitCode

or

$?

depending on what you're after. The former is an integer, the latter just a boolean. Furthermore, $LastExitCode is only populated for native programs being run, while $? generally tells whether the last command run was successful or not – so it will also be set for cmdlets.

PS Home:\> cmd /c "echo foo"; $?,$LASTEXITCODE
foo
True
0
PS Home:\> cmd /c "ech foo"; $?,$LASTEXITCODE
'ech' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
False
1