Installer Exit Codes

Return codes reported by the Windows launcher installer

The Windows installer built for your launcher reports a specific exit code for every outcome. Use these when you deploy the launcher through a management tool, a script, or the Microsoft Store.

This is the page to enter in Partner Center under Packages > Installer handling > Provide URL for documentation for all miscellaneous EXE return code values.

Codes

Code	Meaning	What happened
0	Installation successful	The launcher was installed, or an existing installation was upgraded in place.
112	Disk space is full	The target drive does not have enough free space. The installer checks before writing anything, so nothing was installed.
1602	Installation cancelled by user	The user clicked Cancel or closed the wizard. Never returned during a silent install.
1603	Package rejected during installation	A file could not be written, or a device security policy blocked the install.
1618	Installation already in progress	Another copy of the same installer is already running in this Windows session. Wait for it to finish and try again.
1638	Application already exists	The launcher is already installed and the user declined the upgrade prompt. A silent install upgrades in place and returns 0.

The values follow the standard Windows Installer convention, so tools that already understand MSI return codes read them correctly without extra configuration.

Silent install

The installer supports unattended installation:

# Install without any user interaction
.\YourLauncher_Installer_Windows_x64.exe /S

# Install to a specific folder (/D must be last, and unquoted)
.\YourLauncher_Installer_Windows_x64.exe /S /D=C:\Games\YourLauncher

The switch is /S, uppercase. Switches from other installer toolkits (/silent, /verysilent, /quiet, /qn) are not recognised and will open the wizard instead.

Silent uninstall

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\YourLauncher\uninst.exe" /S

The same command is stored in the registry as QuietUninstallString, so deployment tools can discover it automatically:

Get-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\YourLauncher" |
  Select-Object DisplayName, Publisher, DisplayVersion, QuietUninstallString

Launchers configured to install for all users write to HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ instead.

Reading the exit code

PowerShell

$p = Start-Process -FilePath .\YourLauncher_Installer_Windows_x64.exe -ArgumentList "/S" -Wait -PassThru
if ($p.ExitCode -ne 0) { Write-Error "Install failed with code $($p.ExitCode)" }

Command Prompt

YourLauncher_Installer_Windows_x64.exe /S
echo Exit code: %ERRORLEVEL%

Do not run the installer with Start-Process without -Wait. PowerShell returns immediately and $p.ExitCode will be empty.

What the installer does not do

• It never requires a restart, so 3010 is never returned.
• It never downloads anything during installation. Everything it installs is inside the installer itself, so there are no network failure codes.
• It adds exactly one entry to Add or remove programs and installs no third party software.

Related

• Publish to the Microsoft Store
• Launcher Builds