Windows installer tool – msiexec.exe

If you are Windows user and at some point get the info message that says “Installation directory must be on a local hard drive” when you try to run the installer for some software, then you can read here how to put into use the MSIEXEC.EXE tool and bypass this issue.

Here is my example of what happened when I tried to install Brackets, an awesome free code editor in Windows 10.

There are other ways to solve this issue and here is a quick one. I downloaded Brackets and by default those files end up into Downloads folder. Here are simple steps for solving “Installation directory must be on a local hard drive” issue.

1. Copy the file path (address to the file location)

This is pretty much self-explanatory step… image also helps 😉
In my case that was: C:\Users\Dejan\Downloads\Brackets.Release.1.8.msi

2. Open Command Prompt

Run Command Prompt (also known as cmd.exe or cmd) as Administrator and type in the command msiexec.exe /i followed by the file path you copied in step 1, and hit Enter key. The complete command line looks like this:

msiexec.exe /i C:\Users\Dejan\Downloads\Brackets.Release.1.8.msi

You are all done. Installation should be completed after using the msiexec tool within command line. Enjoy 😉