Run PowerShell script from WiX installer

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="&quot;[POWERSHELLEXE]&quot; -Version 3.0 -NoProfile -NonInteractive -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command &quot;&amp; '[#MONGODB_INSTALL.PS1]' ; exit $$($Error.Count)&quot;" />

        <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>

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

Only the following example helped me https://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="&quot;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe&quot; -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.