When packaging and installing executables and msi's with no silent install option, is the only recourse to enable interactive installation, or is there any other way to have it install, perhaps with defaults (next, next, finish etc.).

Thank you

One additional comment here, all MSIs have a silent install option because that's a function of the Windows Installer. It's possible for bad MSIs to circumvent this by either using a custom action that displays some UI or calls something that in-turn displays UI.

As for exe's, if Installshield was used to build the exe, then you can create an .iss answer file as John pointed out.

I rarely see anything that can't be directly made silent. They do unfortunately exist though and your #1 option should be to contact the vendor and tell them their stupid, seriously (how will they ever know to fix it if someone doesn't tell them and relay to them how problematic it is). Next you can try using AutoIT or you may have to repackage using AdminStudio or one of the other repackagers on the market.

I had originally type "all msi files..." and I went back and changed that to say "most msi files..." for the very reason Jason points out. There are always vendors who just don't do things