How to install Orca - which Windows SDK(s) contain the Orca MSI editing tool? How to install Orca - which Windows SDK(s) contain the Orca MSI editing tool? windows windows

How to install Orca - which Windows SDK(s) contain the Orca MSI editing tool?


Thanks to the confirmation from @pnp0a03 that Orca is still present in modern Windows SDK ISOs, I was able to figure out an install process which does not require re-downloading the full ISO.

It turns out that the Windows 10 SDK can install orca (though the file is now named orca-x86_en-us.msi) but it is not installed by default when you install the SDK via the Visual Studio installer. It is an optional component of the SDK, and the Visual Studio 2015 installer does not offer any control over which SDK components are installed. You have to separately run the SDK installer to install the component which contains Orca.

To do so, go to "Apps and Features", select the most recent Windows Software Development Kit from the installed apps list, and click "Modify".

Modify the existing Windows SDK installation

This starts the installation wizard for the SDK itself.

In the Windows SDK installer wizard, click "Change"

Now you can edit which SDK features are installed. Select "MSI Tools" and click Change:

Select MSI Tools and click Change

After the wizard completes, the Orca installer can now be found in the SDK's install path. On my machine, that's located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\Orca-x86_en-us.msi. Running that MSI package installs the latest version of Orca itself.


You can pick it from Windows SDK ISO.

  1. Download the latest SDK ISO Image. Current one is 16299.15.
  2. Mount it with Explorer and open the directory Installers. You can find the Orca-x86_en-us.msi.

Downloads Windows 10 SDK


We can download the latest Windows 10 SDK from here

When installing the SDK installer, select below feature alone and proceed installation

"MSI Tools"

Check below folder and look for Orca-x86_en-us.msi

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.19041.0\x86

NOTE: In my C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin folder, I see multiple versions of windows 10 and one can see the orca MSI under the latest version number folder (under x86)