[New-bugs-announce] [issue29231] Broken MSIs in Python 3.5+

[KeyWeeUsr]

New submission from KeyWeeUsr:

In versions _lower_ than 3.5.0 there was a `.MSI` installer for Windows, which had a really nice hidden option. That option looked like this:

    msiexec.exe /a "file.msi" /qb /L*V "file.log" ALLUSERS=0 TARGETDIR="target" CURRENTDIRECTORY="%cd%" <additional options>

which basically allows me to ignore admin rights, because the MSI turns to some kind of installer for whole network, thus the permission workaround for older Python versions.

With Python 3.5.0 was introduced a new `.EXE` installer, which has `.MSI` files packed in itself, you can get them out with:

    python-3.5.0.exe /layout [optional target directory]

yet there's a really annoying thing going around with this solution. When I do this, the `.MSI` files have a `-d.msi` suffix and when I manually unpack it with the `msiexec` command above, **every file** has that suffix too, which makes it a _completely damaged_ installation. Renaming the files isn't really an option as each file has `-d.<file ext>`, not `-d.msi.<file ext>` suffix, so it's too hard to rename it in a simple way with tools such as Batch, unless I want to check for multiple cases (e.g. folders).

Is there any way how to extract the content of the installer to a separate folder, like it was possible before **without** any additional stuff put into `Programs and features`, such as `Python 3.5.0 (64bit)` or similar?

Or other question - is there any way how to forbid the installer to access `Programs and features`, shut it from asking admin privileges and registry at all?

It's quite useful if I want to have multiple python fresh installations not bound to anything at all with testing as its main purpose. Note, that I have no intention to use python launcher (that `py.exe` thing), virtualenv or any other alternative "solution" as every of them allows me to install only a one **global** Python installation of the same version and/or is too big for quick usage and at the same time I need to have an option for testing on a fresh interpreter not modified by anything and completely cut off from the OS stuff.

Any ideas how can I achieve the same behavior even on newer Python versions with the EXE installer?

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components: Installation, Windows
messages: 285157
nosy: KeyWeeUsr, paul.moore, steve.dower, tim.golden, zach.ware
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Broken MSIs in Python 3.5+
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.5

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue29231>
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