CF : Installing a cab file programmatically and quietly (no user interaction)

The trick is using wceload.exe with the /no­askdest and /noui parameters.

Again thanks to opennetcf.org.

private bool installCabFile ()
{
try
{
ProcessInfo pi = new ProcessInfo();
if (CreateProcess ("\\Windows\\wceload.exe","/no­askdest /noui " + downloadFileName, pi))
return false;
}

catch (Exception e)
{
Cursor.Current = Cursors.Default;
MessageBox.Show ("Problem installing Cab file " + e.ToString());
return true;
}

return false;
}

// CreateProcess PInvoke API
[DllImport("CoreDll.DLL", SetLastError=true)]
private extern static int CreateProcess ( String imageName, String cmdLine, IntPtr lpProcessAttributes, IntPtr lpThreadAttributes, Int32 boolInheritHandles, Int32 dwCreationFlags, IntPtr lpEnvironment, IntPtr lpszCurrentDir, byte [] si, ProcessInfo pi );

// GetLastError PInvoke API
[DllImport("CoreDll.dll")]
private extern static Int32
GetLastError();

public Int32 GetPInvokeError()
{
return GetLastError();
}

[DllImport("CoreDll.dll")]
private extern static Int32
WaitForSingleObject ( IntPtr Handle, Int32 Wait);

public bool CreateProcess (String ExeName, String CmdLine, ProcessInfo pi)
{
Int32 INFINITE;
unchecked {INFINITE = (int)0xFFFFFFFF;}
bool result = false;
if (pi == null) pi = new ProcessInfo ();
byte [] si = new byte [128];
result = CreateProcess (ExeName, CmdLine, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero, 0, 0, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero, si, pi) != 0;
WaitForSingleObject (pi.hProcess,INFINITE);
return result;
}

public sealed class ProcessInfo
{
public IntPtr hProcess = IntPtr.Zero;
public IntPtr hThread = IntPtr.Zero; public int dwProcessID = 0;
public int dwThreadID = 0;
}

Enjoy!

(Compact Framework)