In this note I'll show how to extract files from an MSI installation package - i.e. from a Windows application installer file.
An MSI is, in fact, largely an archive.
The simplest approach is to download and install the free 7-Zip utility, an archiver supporting a ton of formats: http://www.7-zip.org/.
Using 7-Zip, simply open the MSI file like a regular archive and extract whatever you need from it.
You can also extract files from an MSI using the MSIEXEC utility that comes bundled with the operating system itself. Here's an example of using it for this purpose:
C:\> msiexec /a install.msi /qb targetdir=c:\mydir
here install.msi is the name of the installation file that needs to be unpacked, and c:\mydir is the folder into which the files will be extracted.
PS. Don't worry about the fact that a "Preparing to install" window will pop up during this - the installer will only extract the files, but won't actually launch the installation itself and won't clean up after itself.
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