windows_exporter: installing the MSI with enabled collectors, and verifying /metrics on Windows

Goal

Install windows_exporter on a Windows Server host with a known set of collectors enabled, confirm it runs as a service, and verify metrics are reachable, entirely from a non-interactive installer invocation.

Prerequisites

Administrative PowerShell session; the .msi package downloaded from the project's releases; a target port not already in use (default 9182).

Steps

1. Install with explicit collectors and a firewall exception, all in one non-interactive msiexec call. On PowerShell, the --% stop-parsing token must precede the installer properties: msiexec /i windows_exporter-<version>-amd64.msi --% ENABLED_COLLECTORS=cpu,memory,logical_disk,net,os,service,physical_disk,system ADDLOCAL=FirewallException /qn. The README documents ENABLED_COLLECTORS as equivalent to the --collectors.enabled flag, and ADDLOCAL=FirewallException as adding a matching Windows Firewall rule during install; /qn is the standard MSI quiet-mode switch for unattended installs.
2. To restrict which addresses may reach the exporter through that firewall rule, add REMOTE_ADDR=<prometheus-ip> to the same invocation; the README documents this property as the comma-separated allow-list for the firewall exception.
3. To change the listen port from the default 9182, add LISTEN_PORT=<port>. The README documents the underlying flag --web.listen-address (default :9182) and --telemetry.path (default /metrics) if a non-default metrics path is needed instead.
4. The installer sets up windows_exporter as a Windows service. PowerShell does not wait for msiexec to finish (pipe it to Out-Null or use Start-Process -Wait when scripting); then confirm the service is running: Get-Service windows_exporter | Select-Object Status,StartType.
5. Verify metrics locally: Invoke-WebRequest http://localhost:9182/metrics -UseBasicParsing | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content | Select-String "^windows_cpu".
6. To change the collector set later, note the README's rule that installer properties always take precedence over the YAML config file installed alongside the executable (and CLI flags over config values): after installing with ENABLED_COLLECTORS, editing collectors.enabled in the YAML file has no effect. Either reinstall with a new ENABLED_COLLECTORS value, or install without the properties and manage collectors in the config file, then Restart-Service windows_exporter.

Expected result

Get-Service windows_exporter reports Running; the /metrics endpoint returns Prometheus-format text including metrics from every collector named in ENABLED_COLLECTORS; the Windows Firewall shows the exception rule if ADDLOCAL=FirewallException was used.

Limits and test basis

Based on the prometheus-community/windows_exporter README, which documents the MSI installer properties and command-line flags used above. To undo, uninstall via "Apps & Features" or msiexec /x with the same product, which also removes the firewall exception created by the installer. Leaving REMOTE_ADDR unset makes the firewall exception allow any remote address; set it explicitly on a host reachable from outside the monitoring network.