Software Deployment

Check to see if there is an 'UninstallString' entry in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[ProductCode]_or_[name of product]. If there is one, you could call that via a Custom Action (you may want to see if the uninstall command allows you to specify a silent - that is, with no user interaction - uninstall. If there isn't one, perhaps the best option is to create one. You can do this by capturing the uninstall and copying the content of the RemoveFile and RemoveRegistry tables to your project.

If you want to do it interally from your new MSI - you should use a custom action to call the silent uninstall command of the previous application (assuming it's supports a silent uninstall?!)

You could either have your custom action calling a script (e.g. vbscript or wise script) which handles the uninstall routine the returns the approprate exit code, or call the uninstall command directly from the MSI (Execute Program From Path custom action)

Make sure you condition the CA to only run if the APPSEARCH finds the app, and sequence the custom action correctly in the InstallExecuteSequence (e.g. just after InstallInitialize as a deferred custom action)

Hope this helps get you started...

Cheers,
Rob.

Thanks. I guess the challenge is always is with the older version of Install shield and to uninstall silently, you have to create an "iss" file and then run the uninstall silently. However, during uninstall if the dialog runs into problem, I have seen it fails to uninstall. Any, suggestions on such unisntalls.