I am using Installshield 2010. I made a basic MSI setup, and I am having a problem with uninstalling.
Uninstalling does not remove all folders.
After a complete install, I then uninstall only to find that there is still a path leftover.
For example, C:\ProgramFiles\CompanyName\Account\User_1234.xml
still remains, while everything else is gone.
The User_1234.xml file is generated by the application, and this file is not normally in the install process. So it makes sense why this file may have some problems getting rid of it (installer side).
At the same time, I would think that it would be removed due to the fact that it is within the CompanyName folder.
Is there any way to specify to get rid of everything inside and including the CompanyName folder?
Thanks for any ideas.
You have a couple problems and I'll address the obvious one first. Yes, Windows Installer default behavior is to not delete user data. This could be files not installed by the installer or files that were modified since the installer modified them. To get the installer to remove them, you must author the RemoveFiles table to teach it which files to remove.
Remove Files Table (Windows Installer)
Now I'll address the less obvious problem. You shouldn't expect your application to be able to write to ProgramFiles at runtime. I don't know what your software does but you should seriously consider this aspect of your application design.
Related
I'm probably just being very thick here, but it's not clear to me where I'm supposed to install 'new' user-specific programs on Windows 7 (and presumably Vista too, though I've not specifically looked at that scenario yet).
Under Windows XP (rightly or wrongly) we always installed our programs into folders under 'Program Files' and accepted that they'd be kind-of available to everyone. From what I can gather under Windows 7 I'm supposed to install my software under the user's AppData folder (possibly AppData\Local\MyApp). That makes a degree of sense, but the fact that this folder is 'hidden' by default means that we're going to have 'fun' talking our users through support stuff.
I want to install our software so that it's user specific (the Users bit in Windows 7 makes perfect sense) but I do want the user to be able to access it if required. Our program also includes a 'data' subdirectory which it needs to write into while it's running (embedded database), but as the program is intended to be single-user/standalone, the data folder being inside a user-specific folder isn't going to be a problem.
My problem is just that whole 'hidden folder' aspect of AppData. As much as I've trawled the MSDN, I can't work out where else I'm supposed to install user-specific programs. Taken one way it would seem to be something like AppData\Local\MyApp, and another way it would seem to be just as valid under the user's My Documents\MyApp equivalent.
Has anyone got a clear guide for where all this stuff goes? I found the MSDN docs confusing. :-)
Not really.
The directory that serves as a common
repository for application-specific
data for the current roaming user.
AppData is, surprisingly, for application data, not for installation (Click Once/Silverlight applications aside). You can, and should still install into Program Files, just don't expect to write into that folder.
You can install software into AppData if you want it to follow a user about in an Active Directory environment, which happens if you put it in AppData\Roaming (the SpecialFolder.ApplicationData location).
You can also install into AppData if you want the software to be available to just the user that installs it. This can be useful if, for example, you have multiple users on the same machine, who all want to run different versions of the software in complete isolation.
If you want settings to only apply on the local machine then you use AppData\Local, which is SpecialFolders.LocalApplicationData - this will make AD administrators very happy as the roaming profile size won't suddenly jump up 50Mb or whatever the size of your software is.
If you wanted to create settings which apply to all users then you're looking at SpecialFolders.CommonApplicationData
You should remember never to rely on the actual name of the directory - localisation issues mean this can change and the location does change with OS versions two. You should be using the special folder enumeration in your software, or the equivalent in your installer.
Could you not install into Program Files, but use AppData as it's supposed to be used, and store your database in there?
Windows 7 added the FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles known folder and by default this maps to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs. This is used by MSI when ALLUSERS=2 & MSIINSTALLPERUSER=1.
On Vista and earlier there is no canonical per-user application folder but just using %LOCALAPPDATA% is pretty common. Sadly MSI will just use %ProgramFiles% on these systems.
It's 2019, and I just installed Visual Studio Code (a Microsoft product) in the default folder of
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code
This is probably for getting around the requirement to have an administrator or UAC prompt authorise the installation
Windows 7 folder structure is deeply inspired on Unix structure:
/usr/ -> C:\Program Files\ -> binaries: executables and dynamically linked
/etc/ -> C:\ProgramData\ -> global settings
/home/ -> C:\Users\ -> a folder for each user
~/.* -> C:\Users\Hikari\AppData\Roaming\ -> settings for each user
Windows has more folder, like My Documents for files with content produced by user, AppData Local and Roaming (which Unix usually handles with NFS).
It's about time for us developers to start using these structures. We must separate at least binary files that don't need to be replicated, global and user settings.
When a setup is installing an app, this setup should expect to have permission to write on Program Files. Once the setup is finished, Program Files should be writable only for other setups aiming to update binaries to other versions.
Please install executable files to the %programfiles% folder in Windows - a simple MSI based install package can perform an active setup for any new user who logs onto the machine to create the user specific files and folders in their profiles %appdata% folder. You see this behaviour for Internet Explorer, Adobe reader, etc. - It's the little MSI installer window that pops up the first time you log onto a machine which has those applications installed. - Thanks - a system admin :)
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that user-specific program files is just asking for trouble and is a damn stupid thing to do.
A much more sensible approach is to install different versions of your program to:
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.1\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.2\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.3\Program.exe
\Program Files\Your Program\Program_v0.4\Program.exe
I would then place a bootstrapping launcher at:
\Program Files\Your Program\ProgramLauncher.exe
Then, the user application data folder will only contain data, including an INI/XML/Settings file that indicates the version of the program that this user is working with.
Such an approach satisfies the core tenant of keeping data and executing code separate, allows every user to run a specific version of the code, and offers a small amount of de-duplication by ensuring the same executable code is not copied multiple times across user folders.
Otherwise, go right ahead with installing programs to AppData and undoing the years it has taken us to achieve clean separation of code and data. I found this thread because I noticed that Chromium and DropBox are installing code to AppData. I'm going to uninstall those program, and change the permissions on my AppData folder to exclude execution to ensure I can easily spot other programs attempting the same BS.
I'm quite new in the InstallShield stuff, I took this project from a leaving co-worker. However, here's my problem:
I was trying to update a MySQL Server with the setup from 5.7.17 to 5.7.19, which works great most of the times.
I got the feature "MySQL", splitted in "MySQL Data" (includes the performance_schema and mysql database), "MySQL Service" (Service batch files) and "MySQL Binaries" (the files).
For the update, I just changed the binaries by the new one and left the rest. All features are selected and my log tells me, that it installs all files which it hasn't installed by now, leaving the existing files untouched. As this is an update, it seems correct to me.
But sometimes, at the end of the setup process, it uninstalls almost anything of my MySQL Feature again; the databases, the batch files and almost any core file which wasn't changed by the setup before. But why is that and how can I stop my setup from do so?
Kind regards
I think what you're describing is that your file containing the data is not getting updated. Since this type of file cannot be versioned, that's what Windows installer uses to determine whether or not to upgrade the file, you will need to mark the component containing this file to Always Overwrite. Check out the MS docs for the Component table for how to do this with the Attributes field.
You may want to check the conditions on the components in question. Also, check the install sequence to see if it is calling uninstall out of sequence.
I have two rather large solutions that both experience the same problem. The issue is that I am warned about an inability to delete temporary files. The messages all look like this:
Failed to delete the temporary file
"C:\Users\Don\AppData\Local\Temp\tmp07197280428445c484ba0cda58178903.exec.cmd".
The process cannot access the file
'C:\Users\Don\AppData\Local\Temp\tmp07197280428445c484ba0cda58178903.exec.cmd'
because it is being used by another process.
I have seen suggestions of using pre-build commands to first delete things, but that is a lot of projects, and I'm not going there.
Anyone know how else I might remedy this, that does not involve "fixing" each project individually?
If it makes any difference, I'm compiling C# .NET 3.5 projects.
My idea is, to write a small addin for Visual Studio, which can delete files on build. You could configure it with filepaths and then just run sth like this:
foreach (var item in paths)
File.Delete(item);
And the config you could put solutionwide.
I get that too - the problem is that the compilation system itself is holding onto the file when it attempts to delete it. I think it deletes it afterwards anyway as I've never seen the named files hanging around afterwards so its just an annoyance that can be ignored.
The files seem to be the command that VS is running that is built up from the build settings.
I assume its a .NET thing where the GC hasn't cleaned up the object that has the handle to the file when the system attempts to delete it. If so, directly shows the benefit of RAII over GC :-)
A likely source for the problem is that your antivirus software is busy scanning the file in question, which prevents the rightful owner deleting it. Curb the enthusiasm of the antivirus and your problem will be solved.
Unload the project from your solution, than reload it. It should create the missing files and be buildable again.
If you have installed any third party cleaner tool and activated the active mode (always running in background) this will lock the temp folder in the appdata so Visual Studio is unable to restore the Nuget package on build and there will be a build error.
Try uninstalling the cleaner and restarting the system. When I had this problem, that was how I fixed it.
Is there a NoUninstall=Y or similar option I can put into Setup.ini for a program?
I want to compare the behaviour of a patched and non-patched version of some software. To do that, I need 2 copies installed in different folders.
When I run setup.exe the second time, I am prompted to uninstall.
If I change DoMaintenance=N -> DoMaintenance=Y, I get the option to Modify, Repair, Uninstall.
I do not have access to the original InstallShield project files.
I'd like to avoid having to use Virtual PC.
Otherwise can I change the GUID of the first install within Windows/Regedit?
I don't sure regarding changing GUIDs of installer in registry, but I guess it's possible, but the better will be change your setup. As I understood you have access to setup.ini, and perhaps you have access to msi? If so, you could change GUIDs of components, PackageCode, UpgradeCode, ProductCode and ProductName or ProductVersion.
P.S. For editing MSI you can use Orca, or more useful and also free InstEd.
I have a project that uses clickonce to generate the setup.exe. During the run time my program create some extra files like "Log" and "Attachments" inside the User Folder. However, those folders are not removed when I perform an uninstall of the clickonce application from the ARP. These remaining files are interfering the next install.
I know that click once does not support for adding custom action to install or uninstall. I am wondering if is there is a way that I can remove those extra file programmingly after performing uninstall?
One way I have tried was to create a cleanup script and added it as a bootstrapper package to pre-requisite of the click once project. That worked in a way that every time before a new product was installed, the previous dirty data had been removed. However, this messed up the upgrade case.
Any ideas on how to remove the extra files that left by clickonce uninstallation?
Thank you
JS
There is no way to do anything when uninstalling a ClickOnce application other than uninstall the ClickOnce application.
Have you considered putting the files in the ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.DataDirectory ? Then they will be removed when the application is unisntalled.
If the files are part of the project, you can set the type to Data in the Application Files dialog, and it will automatically place them in the data directory when deploying.
This solution works on multiple re-installations (clean), however it doesn't remove the data on last uninstall or until the next installation takes place.
Stil there is no custom action place on uninstall to remove the files beyond clickonce scope.
Leave a file in to ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.DataDirectory.
On startup, see if the file exists on conditions network deployed, firstrun (which resets on upgarde too).. success case, it is a first installation or upgrade. Failure case, the application is been uninstalled and installing again .. now you have a chance to clean up the application data.
If the data is sensitive, you may want to use other solution to remove files on uninstall ( as of now I don't see that Microsoft is given us an option)