Uninstaller does not delete programs menu folder

[JohnTurnbull]

Hi,

My installer adds this folder to the users start menu

500clips.jpg (21.82 KiB) Viewed 4324 times

On uninstall, the folder is not removed. the 500Clips and Help shortcuts are removed but the folder and the Uninstall or Repair item are left.

When I remove the Uninstall item and use uninstall from "Programs and Features" the folder is removed. When I add back the uninstall item, it is not removed.

Any help appreciated.

[Daniel]

Hello John,

We are aware about similar issues when the "ProgramMenuFolder\YourAppFolder" is not removed on uninstall triggered by an uninstall shortcut launched after a Start menu search on Windows 7 OSs. This behavior seems to be generated because the related shortcut is kept in use by the uninstall process and, therefore it cannot be removed. We've performed a research regarding this strange issue, but unfortunately we didn't found anything conclusive. This seems to be a Windows Installer issue. As a side note, Windows Installer guidelines advise not to use an uninstall shortcut.

In order to avoid this behavior, as a workaround you can create your own custom action which will remove the related Application Shortcut Folder (500 Clips) on uninstall. The custom action should be scheduled after "Install Execution Stage -> Finish Execution" actions group and should have the "Wait for custom action to finish before proceeding" and "Wait for return code at the end of the sequence" options disabled.

All the best,
Daniel

[JohnTurnbull]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the reply and I will try your workaround if nothing else works. However, I think you are wrong about it being a Windows problem. I have several installs which are identical (other than program name) to 500 clips and none of them suffer from this problem which would indicate some difference it the .aip. I will attach two .aip's to this post which do not cause the problem. Perhaps you can spot the difference between them and 500 Clips. I can't and I've been comparing them for hours!

[mihai.petcu]

Hello John,

There is no obvious difference indeed. I performed a test of my own by removing all elements from the project except that shortcut. When uninstalling from the Control Panel on a Windows 7 machine the folder got deleted.
Another approach you can try is to add a file removal operation for the shortcut. If this doesn't work you can go with Daniel's workaround.

All the best,
Mihai

[JohnTurnbull]

Thank you.