2023 Scripted Install of ADIX Files

GTVic · ‎06-14-2022

Seems Autodesk has replaced a couple of MSI based installs with .adix files. Specifically acad.adix and acadlp.adix. This appears to be a renamed APPX file which is a Microsoft installer that is supposed to install files to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps. But somehow the installer is redirecting the files to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023.

There is no documentation on how to script the ADIX file installs from the command line.

It looks like these files are installed using routines from an adixhandler.dll and then a separate program called AcNGEN.exe is either registering the .NET assemblies or installing them to the GAC as a separate process.

Creating these kind of custom installers with no documentation doesn't seem to be very helpful and seems to be making the patches very large because they have to send out an entirely new adix file even if only a few files are changing.

knmdk · ‎12-19-2024

You can install each AdIX by extracting it's VFX contents to the appropriate directory in Program Files and then applying the Windows Registry changes from the corresponding Registry.dat registry hive files located inside AdIX (import-export it with Registry Editor and edit-replace REG with Notepad to point all keys to correct HKLM\SOFTWARE hive). But to achieve a full scripted installation you'll have to alter each MSI individually to omit it's launch condition (Setup.exe). And you'll also have to write a batch file to remove AdIX files and registry entries (and MSIs as well as they are hidden from Uninstall Programs & Features by default, but still can be uninstalled via Command Prompt using their ProductCode values). I'm not sure if it's still relevant for newer releases, but it worked for Civil 3D 2023 which features AutoCAD 2023.