title: Install Microsoft Self-Extracting EXE via Remote Powershell
body: <p>I'm attempting to <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh351353.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">remote install AppFabric 1.1</a> on a <strong>Windows Server 2012 R2</strong> machine for enabling <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee677260%28v=azure.10%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WCF auto-start features</a>. My approach is to <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27115" rel="nofollow noreferrer">copy the self-extraction package</a> (<i>WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe</i>) to the target machine and subsequently fire off <code>setup.exe /i</code> as stated in the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh351353.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AppFabric automated installation guide</a> to install all features. </p>
  
  <p>The issue is that the self-extraction step is not enabling me to specify an output path (<em><code>&amp; WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe /extract:"c:\temp"</code> doesn't work</em>), so it just quits after copying all the extracted files to a GUID folder on the disk containing the most free space. The temp folder is then removed after it is extracted. </p>
  
  <p>Do I have to copy the extracted files/folders myself (<em>shown below</em>) and then run <code>setup.exe</code>? Ideally I could just keep the self-extraction package (<em>32MB EXE</em>) intact and deploy it as a single step. It's looking as though the self-extraction that I downloaded is not meant as a re-distribution means - only as web delivery of the installer. I must have to copy the raw 90MB extracted installer files around.</p>
  
  <h3>Self-Extraction Package Contents (<i>WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe</i>)</h3>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/XZAUS.png" width="448" height="261"></p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have any suggestions - or improvement ideas? </p>
  
  <h3>Status Update</h3>
  
  <p>I ended up just copying the raw files (<em>90MB</em>) over and running <code>setup.exe /i /gac</code> via powershell to install all the AppFabric features. I'm just struggling with the proper re-distribution mechanism for Microsoft self-extracting packages. </p>