Windows installer installs to different path than specified even starting from escalated cmd prompt.

[mjknoll]

On windows 10 v10.0.18362.657 I am running the installer and at first I thought it was just not working. I did have antivirus off and I found #96, #102 and the workaround that says to use an escalated cmd prompt to execute the installation. The issue is it still won't install to C: even if I manually specify C: or a folder on C: and start the MSI from an escalated cmd prompt it is placing the zip on F: then creating the metasploit-framework folder there. Ejected my F: drive now it does it on B: can recreate this issue consistently over and over.

[lubieowoce]

(didn't actually work, see end)

had a similar issue, but it tried using Z:, a network drive, to store some 700MB of temp files... what ended up working for me is i unmounted Z:, put the installer on D: (the only other drive i had mounted), and did msiexec /a D:\metasploitframework-latest.msi from an admin prompt - maybe some permission issue was preventing it from using C:?.

some observations:

• the installer seems fussy about free space (i may be cargo culting here though)
• if the installer is complaining about something like "Drive Z: is missing" right after you start it, check if you've got a residual C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi left over from a previous installation attempt. (the file opens decently in Notepad or a hex viewer, look around for a path like Z : \ m e t a s p l o i t - f r a m e w o r k). deleting the file helped in my case.

EDIT alright, looks like i was a bit quick to celebrate. the first command finished without errors, but it doesn't look like it installed anything -- it just created a second metasploitframework-latest.msi, (~1MB) and metasploit-framework.zip (~750MB) in C:/ ... i'm confused

[jmartin-tech]

This looks to be related to how WIX installer is deciding setting installation location, further investigation of root cause is needed. This may also be related to root cause of #96 although we have no concrete proof that prior to usage of fastzip the user set path was being properly respected.

[MR-AMDEV]

Also in environment variable in Win 10, it is actually adding the following system Path:

C:\metasploit-framework\bin\

Although even after selecting C:/ and installing, it actually installed the metasploit in my D:/ drive.
I am manually copying the extracted folder to C:/ drive.

[ghost]

A better alternative (for now at least) is to open the .msi file using 7-Zip and then right click on the file starting with "fil" and choose "Open Inside"

Then CTRL+A and extract the files to C:\metasploit-framework

Add C:\metasploit-framework\bin to the PATH variable so you can access msf commands from Terminal.