In my opinion, Microsoft Orca is an essential utility for anyone administrating the client experience. This free utility can open Windows Installer databases, which provides more control over application deployments for an administrator. If you are looking for a free utility for finding installation properties and feature customization, Orca might just be it.
“Orca is a Windows Installer package editor provided as part of the Windows Installer SDK and designed to provide full access to the database tables that compose a Windows Installer package.”
Windows Installer SDK Orca Documentation
This guide walks through the basic steps of obtaining the Orca installer from the Windows 10 SDK. From my understanding, this is the only way to officially obtain this installer. If you have any information contradicting this, please let me know!
Download the Windows 10 SDK
Obtain the installation media by downloading the Windows 10 Software Development Kit (SDK): https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk
Windows Software Development Kit Wizard
Launch “winsdksetup.exe” and select the installation options of your choice.
Windows Software Development Kit Wizard
- Specify Location
- Download the Windows Software Development Kit – Window %ADKVERSION% for installation on a separate computer.
- Windows Kits Privacy (Optional)
- Send anonymous usage data to Microsoft for the Windows 10 Kits
- No
- Send anonymous usage data to Microsoft for the Windows 10 Kits
- Select the features you want to download
- MSI Tools
Navigate to the MSI Directory
The MSI download directory is determined by the Specify Location Wizard Pane. This should be similar to the following:
%YOURLOCATION%\Windows Kits\10\WindowsSDK\Installers\Orca-x86_en-us.msi
HDEL 