Inspect and extract files from MSI installers directly in your browser
Hey everyone! I'm excited to share a small web app I built that allows you to view and extract the contents of Windows MSI installers directly in your browser. It's essentially a web-based "lessmsi" powered by Pyodide. You can try it out at: https://pymsi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/msi_viewer.html My motivation for building this was from part of my day job -- I often get Windows MSI installers and need to extract files while preserving the relative directory structure and filenames, as they would appear after a full installation. The existing tools I found were good…
Inspect and extract files from MSI installers directly in your browser launched on June 20, 2025 with 135 votes, #301 of 7,999 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
This web app lets users view and extract files from Windows MSI installers directly in a browser without installing software. Built with Pyodide and powered by the pymsi Python library, it preserves the directory structure and filenames as they would appear after installation. It works cross-platform on Windows, macOS, and Linux, addressing limitations of existing tools that are typically restricted to specific operating systems.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Inspect Windows MSI installer files in your browser (no uploads). View summary metadata, tables/streams and extract files.
This interactive tool allows you to view the contents of MSI installer files directly in your browser. The processing happens entirely on your device - no files are uploaded to any server. Found a weird corner case or got feature ideas? Open an issue , start a discussion , or contributefrom pymsi.readthedocs.io
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey everyone! I'm excited to share a small web app I built that allows you to view and extract the contents of Windows MSI installers directly in your browser. It's essentially a web-based "lessmsi" powered by Pyodide. You can try it out at…
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