I’m messing around with Boxstarter and Chocolatey and one of the things I wanted to do was install the various “Command Prompt Here” context menu extensions I use all the time. These extensions are .inf files and, unfortunately, there isn’t really any documentation on how to create a Chocolatey package that installs an .inf.

So here’s how you do it:

First, package the .inf file in the tools folder of your package alongside the chocolateyInstall.ps1 script..inf files are pretty small anyway and you want the file to be around for uninstall, so it’s best to just include it.

Next, set your chocolateyInstall.ps1 to run InfDefaultInstall.exe. That’s an easier way to install .inf files than the rundll32.exe way and it’ll work with Vista and later. So… no XP support. Aw, shucks.

Here’s a sample chocolateyInstall.ps1:

$packageName = 'YourPackageNameHere'
$validExitCodes = @(0)

try {
  $scriptPath = split-path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
  $target = Join-Path $scriptPath "YourInfFileNameHere.inf"
  $infdefaultinstall = Join-Path (Join-Path $Env:SystemRoot "System32") "InfDefaultInstall.exe"
  Start-ChocolateyProcessAsAdmin "$target" "$infdefaultinstall" -validExitCodes $validExitCodes
  Write-ChocolateySuccess "$packageName"
} catch {
  Write-ChocolateyFailure "$packageName" "$($_.Exception.Message)"
  throw
}

To support uninstall, add a chocolateyUninstall.ps1 script. This will have to use rundll32.exe to uninstall, but it’s not too bad.

    $packageName = 'YourPackageNameHere'
    $validExitCodes = @(0)

    try {
      $scriptPath = split-path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
      $target = Join-Path $scriptPath "YourInfFileNameHere.inf"
      Start-ChocolateyProcessAsAdmin "SETUPAPI.DLL,InstallHinfSection DefaultUninstall 132 $target" "rundll32.exe" -validExitCodes $validExitCodes
      Write-ChocolateySuccess "$packageName"
    } catch {
      Write-ChocolateyFailure "$packageName" "$($_.Exception.Message)"
      throw
    }

That’s it! Run the packaging and you’re set to go. This will support both installation and uninstallation of the .inf file.

Note: At one point I was having some trouble getting this to run on a Windows Server 2012 VM using the one-click Boxstarter execution mechanism. I found this while testing an install script that installs something like 40 things. After rolling back the VM to a base snapshot (before running the script) I’m no longer able to see the failure I saw before, so I’m guessing it was something else in the script causing the problem. This INF install mechanism appears to work just fine.