sreedevibalachandran
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:30 am

Uninstall does not remove files , shortcuts etc

Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:01 am

I have created a 32 bit installer. When I am trying to uninstall , it does not remove the installation folder content. It does not stop/delete services and does not stops process too. But Uninstallation gets completed and shows reboot prompt too. Hereby attaching the Verbose logs during installation and uninstallation. Please help. It's very urgent.

I was trying in a Windows 7 machine.
Attachments
log.zip
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Catalin
Posts: 6542
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Uninstall does not remove files , shortcuts etc

Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:14 am

Hello,

Thank you for the log files.

I have investigated them and I could notice, in the uninstall log file, the following line(s):

Code: Select all

MSI (c) (A0:70) [12:16:17:357]: Disallowing uninstallation of component: {14817F1C-9B18-4AD0-A456-FB0BFF711B43} since another client exists
MSI (c) (A0:70) [12:16:17:358]: Disallowing uninstallation of component: {0FDE94D1-7280-4392-AE5D-807BDDD4F5C4} since another client exists
(the list is bigger, but I selected only two of them)

Basically, this means that your files are somehow shared between multiple setups.

Every resource from an installation package have a component assigned. A component is a piece of the application or product to be installed. Examples of components include single files, a group of related files, registry keys, resources, etc.

If you find the above lines in the log file, then this is the reason why your files or registry entries are not removed. Basically, this can happen if the same components are shared between multiple packages installed on the same machine. Windows Installer keeps a refcount (reference count) for the components and does not allow removing them until all the applications that use them are removed.

Please have a look on the "Why files are left behind after package uninstall" article for more information about this.

If the software (the setup) is not yet distributed, it is a high chance that this may be particular to your developer machine only. With that being said, please try and test this on a Virtual Machine (with a clean OS installed) and let me know if this still reproduces.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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Catalin
Posts: 6542
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Uninstall does not remove files , shortcuts etc

Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:32 pm

You are always welcome.

Glad I could help.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
Follow us: Twitter - Facebook - YouTube

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