Launching a browser

[SteveA]

Is there anything in Advanced Installer that makes it easy to launch a browser when someone uninstalls the software so a comment form can be presented to the user to find out why the software is being removed?

[Cosmin]

Hi,

You can try using a Launch file or open URL custom action. This way you can open an URL in the default Internet browser.

Regards,
Cosmin

[SteveA]

Thanks. That calls a URL ok, but to make it useful the action needs to include a variable in the call that identifies the machine that's calling the URL. Is there someplace the installed package code can place a variable after it installs, so that the uninstall code can grab it?

[SteveA]

For example, can the custom action read a value from the Registry of the machine it's running in?

[Cosmin]

Hi,

but to make it useful the action needs to include a variable in the call that identifies the machine that's calling the URL.

You can try using the ComputerName property as the variable.

Is there someplace the installed package code can place a variable after it installs, so that the uninstall code can grab it?

You can write the information you need in the registry or in a file.

can the custom action read a value from the Registry of the machine it's running in?

The "Launch file or open URL" custom action cannot read a registry entry. However, you can use another custom action for this. You can find some sample VBScript code here. The custom action which retrieves the entry can set an installer property which can be used for the URL.

Regards,
Cosmin

[SteveA]

I just wanted to provide some feedback on how I solved my problem. I wasn't able to use the Launch URL action because I need to pass a variable that identifies the machine and there's no way to pick up a variable from Launch URL action.

I finally wrote my own .exe that gets the variable needed and calls the local browser with the variable as a QueryString. I specified this exe as a custom action of the Uninstall phase.

Steve

[hassanali20]

hi steve,

can you tell me how do i get a value from a exe file to the installer?

I want to actually execute the command.exe with some command line stuff push the output to the installer property.

thanks in advance.

regards
hassan

[Bogdan]

Hi Hassan,

I'm afraid Windows Installer does not allow you to set a property from and EXE. You can do this from a Win32 DLL or VBScript custom action,
but not EXE.

From what I can understand from Steve's post he passed the value of a property to its EXE,probably passing it as a command line parameter, not the other way around.

Regards,
Bogdan