AI_Recyclebin Folder on all drives

[mheckmann]

Hi,

it was just brought to my attention that the installation creates hidden Folders called AI_Recyclebin on all of a computer's drives including mapped network drives. Unfortunately also these Folders seem to be left behind after updates or uninstalls. Especially the Folders being created on every single drive connected to the computer including network drives is something I can't have happen as our product sometimes ends up in very networked environments.
Is there anything I can do about that?

cheers
Markus

[Daniel]

Hello Markus,

This folder it's an internal Advanced Installer recycle bin and is used by our file/folder removal mechanism from "Files and Folders" page. It's a temporary folder used to store files that will be removed from disk.

Can you please send us a sample project so we can try to reproduce this on our machines too, at support at advancedinstaller dot com? Also, can you tell us what are your machine's specifications (i.e. OS, language)?

All the best,
Daniel

[R.Mueller]

Hi Daniel,

is the recycle bin problem already solved with the latest version of Advanced Installer?

Regards,

R.Müller

[Eusebiu]

Hi Roland,

Yes, this problem has already been fixed in Advanced Installer 9.8.

Best Regards,
Eusebiu

[mheckmann]

Hi,

I actually still get this folder created on all drives of my machine, including connected network drives. Running Advanced Installer 10.2 on Windows 7, English

cheers
Markus

[Eusebiu]

Hi Markus,

I tested this again using Advanced Installer 10.2, but I couldn't reproduce the behavior.

Can you please give us a step by step test case scenario so you can try to reproduce and investigate the problem? Otherwise, can you please send us the .AIP (project file) and verbose logs of the installation/uninstallation to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can investigate them?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[R.Mueller]

Hi Eusebiu,

the last answer to this call is a while ago, but I can confirm the behavior Markus is observing. I found also on several file servers of our company AI_RecycleBin folders. Some of those servers are definitely once, where no product made with Advanced Installer is installed. I wondered already, why this could happens, but it seems to be the case, that these folders are created on remote or network drives.

I can delete the folders on all servers and drives, where I will find them and watch the behavior for the next weeks, if the folders are coming back or not. If the behavior only happened with older versions of AI (<10.2), the folders should be restored, because we are only using later versions of our product made with AI 10.5.2 currently.

@Markus:
Do you get those folders, when installing something made with AI or also after a while of using a product installed with AI?

Cheers,
Roland

[Bogdan]

Hi guys,

As Eusebiu said, those folders are created only when the installer package is running. You should never see those folders created when you are
using the installed application.

Regards,
Bogdan

[R.Mueller]

Hi Bogdan,

yes understood. But we are eating our own medicine: Our product is installed on some inhouse servers as well as on test machines.

Cheers,
Roland

[ales.hrodek]

Can I ask what is current state of this issue? I see in version history it should be fixed in 9.8 but this happen to me (my customers) even with AI 9.9

[R.Mueller]

Hi Ales,

I still have the issue on some servers in our company, hence I regularly delete AI_RecycleBins on several drives and shares. Currently we are using AI 11.1 and until a few weeks ago all setups were made with AI 10.5.2. So, I guess, the problem still exists: AI is spreading the recycle bin folders like seeds of weeds.

Regards,

Roland

[ales.hrodek]

Thanks Marcus,

That's bad because I have not spotted this issue because using VM to test my setup. Unfortunately customers are starting spot it after a year since I released first setup made by AI and of course they do not like it. Technically I do not need Install/Uninstall order for setup functionality except fix one standard order "feature". If user pin application icon to taskbar and upgrade, with Uninstall/Install order pinned application icon goes "blank".

[Daniel]

Hello,

Indeed, after a large suite of tests it seems that the "AI_RecycleBin" folder is sporadically created and not removed under SystemFolder (i.e. "C:\Windows\SysWOW64" or "C:\Windows\System32"). This issue is currently under investigation and we'll try to add a fix as soon as possible.

Also, from our tests we were able to replicates the behavior ("AI_RecycleBin" is not deleted) only when the "AI_RecycleBin" was created under SystemFolder. Have you replicated another behavior using our latest version of Advanced Installer? If so, can you try to replicate the behavior in a sample and send it us alongside a test case scenario to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can test and investigate this?

All the best,
Daniel

[ales.hrodek]

Hi Daniel,

I have seen this folder in root of all drives (not in SystemFolder). This was reported to me by customers after a year when they narrowed appearance of this folder to my application. After that I spotted this issue at our network created by other users because I do not install my own app by installer (except on VPC). Unfortunately my maintenance plan expired with 9.9 so I cannot test latest version. To be honest, I currently do not require any new features (approach: do not touch what works) and also haven't got budget to pay for new version now. This is first issue (reported by more than one customer) I am looking at after some time. To pay for renewal I must be sure this is sorted and also I must evaluate if I cannot just live with few moaning users. I know it's bad for you I must work with tight budget but I at least my "thank you" to you when I compare AI with my previous experience with IS.

Ales

[Daniel]

Hello Ales,

I have seen this folder in root of all drives (not in SystemFolder).

I'm not sure why this happens. Can you please make sure the related AI_RecycleBin folders weren't created by setup packages built with older versions (than 9.8) of Advanced Installer? This issue should have been fixed since 9.8 version of Advanced Installer. Can you still replicate the behavior using the 9.8 or 9.9 version of Advanced Installer? If so, can you please send us the .aip (project file) and a download link of the setup which still replicates this issue to support at advancedinstaller dot com so we can test and investigate this? Also, please send us any relevant details which could help us to isolate and replicate this issue. Maybe there still exists a corner case when this issue replicates.

All the best,
Daniel