MSI to Uninstall a Windows Update

[sillz]

We have a lot of Windows7 workstations. They all had IE8. They were all updated over time to IE9 using Windows Updates. IE9 now shows up as an installed Windows update called "Windows Internet Exporer 9" in Control Panel\Installed Updates.

We need to downgrade to IE8 because important applications do not work under IE9 even in compatibility mode. I would like uninstall the update using an MSI pushed through Group Policy.

Can I configure an MSI through Advanced Installer that will uninstall this Windows Update? I was hoping there was native fucntionality in Advanced Installer that would allow me to do this.

If there is no built-in for this, then I do have a DOS command that will uninstall the update. It needs to be run as administrator from the command line.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sillz

[mihai.petcu]

Hi Sillz and welcome to Advanced Installer forums,

Thank you for your interest in Advanced Installer.

Here's what you can try:

• go to the Custom Actions page
• add a new "Exe with working dir" custom action after "Finish Execution" action group
• set the "Working Dir" field to SystemFolder
• set the "Full Path" field to [SystemFolder]msiexec.exe /x GUID /qb, where GUID is the Product Code of the package you want to uninstall
• in the "Execution Properties" section, select the "Asynchronous Execution, do not wait for return" option
• in the "Expression" field of the "Execution Stage Condition" section enable the "Install" checkbox and disable all others

The custom action is launched asynchronously because two MSI-based installations cannot run at the same time. This way the custom action runs right after the main install process is finished.

Here's the GPO tutorial to help you with this as well.

All the best,
Mihai

[sillz]

Thanks for the information. I looked into the possibility of using msiexec /x {GUID} /qn. I had a hard time fiding the GUID for IE9. If I look at the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall, I do not see IE9 listed.

Can you recommend how to find the GUID for the IE9 Update?

[mihai.petcu]

Hello,

Here's an article that may help you with this. You can use this article to extract the .MSI or .MSP from the .EXE. Afterwards, to find the product code you could use "Orca.exe" utility.

If the update package is a .MSP, you should change the command line according to the "Update Options" section of our msiexec user guide article.

All the best,
Mihai

[sillz]

The update packages are installed in %windir%\servicing\Packages. They are .cat and .mum files. Like this:

Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-Package-TopLevel~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~9.4.8112.16421.mum.

I was able to remove the packages from the command line using this command:

FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-*9.*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /quiet/norestart"

The msiexec method doesn't seem to work for mw