Swidtag and updater.ini not deleted on uninstall

[rconn]

AI 14.9, Windows 10 & Windows 7 x64.

I have four installers for different apps. None of them will delete the swidtag file or updater.ini when uninstalling (and thus not deleting the installation directory either).

Do I need to create a custom action to delete those files?

Rex Conn
JP Software

[Catalin]

Hello Rex,

Please note that this may happen when the components have the "Permanent" and "Never Overwrite" attributes ticked. In order to check this, go to "Organization" page from the left pane, click on the component and make sure the "Permanent" and "Never Overwrite" attributes are not ticked.

Another cause may be the fact that the swidtag file and the updater.ini components may share the same GUID across other applications components.

If this does not work, please send a "Verbose log" of the uninstall process by e-mail at support at advancedinstaller dot com .

Best regards,
Catalin

[rconn]

Neither of the components had the "Permanent" or "Never Overwrite" attributes.

The updater.ini component is included in the updater.exe component (which *does* get deleted when uninstalling).

However, the updater.ini component has the same GUID in several different installers. Is this a potential issue? (The Component Properties page shows the GUID, though it's unclear if I can simply change it.)

When I looked at the properties for the swidtag file (in Files & Folders), the Install tab has "Remove file on uninstall: Only if it was created at install" checked, and "If the root node was left empty" unchecked. (I hadn't seen this dialog before.) I tried the existing settings with a fresh install & an upgrade, and the swidtag was left in both cases. Should I check the "If the root node was left empty" option?

Thanks for your help.

Rex Conn
JP Software

[Daniel]

Hello Rex,

Thank you for your sent log file. Indeed, most likely you are encountering this behavior because you are sharing the components of the related resources between multiple installation products. More exactly because you are using the same component GUIDs. You can search into your uninstall log for the following statements:

Disallowing uninstallation of component: GUID's component since another client exists

This usually happens if you used a copy of one of your installation product as a base for the project of a different product setup. Please note that in this case you should always use our "Save as template" option.

However, the updater.ini component has the same GUID in several different installers. Is this a potential issue? (The Component Properties page shows the GUID, though it's unclear if I can simply change it.)

Yes, you should go to "Organization" page and manually set (change) a different GUID for your installation components.

When I looked at the properties for the swidtag file (in Files & Folders), the Install tab has "Remove file on uninstall: Only if it was created at install" checked, and "If the root node was left empty" unchecked. (I hadn't seen this dialog before.) I tried the existing settings with a fresh install & an upgrade, and the swidtag was left in both cases. Should I check the "If the root node was left empty" option?

No, you should leave the XML Update settings as default. Changing the component GUIDs should be useful for your case.

All the best,
Daniel