Install IE9 preview 4 on server SKU

For users who are interested in HTML5/CSS3/SVG supported browser IE9, please refer to http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/.

If you are blocked to install IE9 preview 4 on server 2008 or R2 (see error msg below), you can use Orca to modify the msi package.

[caption id=”attachment_10058” align=”alignnone” width=”376” caption=”IE9 Preview 4 install blocked on server SKU”]IE9 Preview 4 install blocked on server SKU[/caption]

You may find Orca.msi on your hard disk “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\”.
Or download it, refer to KB255905.

Once Orca is installed, follow the steps to modify the MSI to allow installation on server SKU:

  1. Use Orca to open iepreview.msi, Ctrl-F to search string “iepreview_no_server”, you will find it in table “CustomAction” and “InstallExecuteSequence”.
  1. Right click on the action and choose “Drop Row” to delete the row in “InstallExecuteSequence”.
  1. Save the MSI.
  1. Double click to install.

[caption id=”attachment_10064” align=”alignnone” width=”640” caption=”Find iepreview_no_server in Orca”]Find iepreview_no_server in Orca[/caption]

If you would like to know how to find the action “iepreview_no_server” to be deleted, you can try install the original MSI in command line:

msiexec /i iepreview.msi /l*vx ie9p4.log

and analyze the log by yourself. Notice where error occurs.