Run PowerShell script from WiX installer

Looks like you have scheduled the CAQuietExec action as deferred. In this case you have to pass the command line to be executed via a CustomActionData property called QtExecDeferred which is written to the execution script. The deferred action can then access the property from the script.

More details at http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/customactions/qtexec.html

I didn't understand Stephen's answer, however I eventually got it working with the help of this blog post.

Here's a summary of the change I made to Greg's code to get it to work:

• I changed CAQuietExec to WixQuietExec (I'm not sure if this was necessary).

• In SetProperty I changed the value of the Before attribute from InstallFiles to the Id of the custom action; in Greg's case it would be RunPowerShellScript.

• Although unrelated to the question, I ended up needing to change the -Version of powershell to 3.0 from 2.0 to prevent an error when running my script.

Here was my actual working code:

<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi" xmlns:iis="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/IIsExtension" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension">    <Product Id="*" Name="..." Language="1033" Version="..." Manufacturer="..." UpgradeCode="...">        <Property Id="POWERSHELLEXE">        <RegistrySearch Id="POWERSHELLEXE"            Type="raw"            Root="HKLM"            Key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell"            Name="Path" />        </Property>        <Condition Message="This application requires Windows PowerShell.">            <![CDATA[Installed OR POWERSHELLEXE]]>        </Condition>        <SetProperty Id="InstallMongoDB"            Before ="InstallMongoDB"            Sequence="execute"            Value=""[POWERSHELLEXE]" -Version 3.0 -NoProfile -NonInteractive -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& '[#MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1]' ; exit $$($Error.Count)"" />        <CustomAction Id="InstallMongoDB" BinaryKey="WixCA" DllEntry="WixQuietExec" Execute="deferred" Return="check" Impersonate="yes" />        <InstallExecuteSequence>            <Custom Action="InstallMongoDB" Before="InstallFinalize"><![CDATA[NOT Installed]]></Custom>        </InstallExecuteSequence>        <Component Id="MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1" Guid="..." DiskId="1">            <File Id="MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1" Name="mongodb-install.ps1" Source="mongodb-install.ps1"/>        </Component>    </Product>    <Fragment>        <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">            <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">                <Directory Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Name="...">                    <Directory Id="InstallScripts" Name="InstallScripts">                        <Component Id="MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1" Guid="..." DiskId="1">                            <File Id="MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1" Name="mongodb-install.ps1" Source="mongodb-install.ps1"/>                        </Component>                    </Directory>                </Directory>            </Directory>        </Directory>    </Fragment></Wix>

Only the following example helped mehttps://github.com/damienbod/WiXPowerShellExample/blob/master/SetupWithPowerShellScripts/Product.wxs

you need to add smth similar into your 'Product.wxs'. the 'Value' property of the first 'CustomAction' contains a ps script (create and run a windows service in my case).

<!-- assign the string (ps command) to RegisterPowerShellProperty --><CustomAction Id="RegisterWindowsService"                        Property="RegisterPowerShellProperty"                        Value=""C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoLogo -NonInteractive -InputFormat None -NoProfile sc.exe create MyService binpath= 'C:\Program Files (x86)\My service\MyService.exe';sc.exe start MyService"                        Execute="immediate" /><!-- Deferred execution of the above script --><CustomAction Id="RegisterPowerShellProperty"          BinaryKey="WixCA"          DllEntry="CAQuietExec64"          Execute="deferred"          Return="check"          Impersonate="no" /><InstallExecuteSequence>  <!-- On installation we register and start a windows service -->  <Custom Action="RegisterWindowsService" After="CostFinalize">NOT  Installed</Custom>  <Custom Action="RegisterPowerShellProperty" After="InstallFiles">NOT Installed</Custom></InstallExecuteSequence>

you will need to add a reference to 'WixUtilExtension' in order to run the script.