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InstallShield uninstall GUID changes w/ every install

I'm dealing with a product (I-Quest International Codes 2009) that uses a different uninstall GUID every time it's installed. That obviously makes it a little more difficult to script an uninstall. Anyone know of a way to get around that?

Push comes to shove, I may need to look at adding some code to the install that looks in C:\Program Files\Installshield Installation\ for a directory that's less than 5 minutes old, let's say, and renames it to something predictable. If this were Linux/UNIX, that would be a piece of cake. But under Windows... if there's no better solution, can anyone point me in the right direction there?

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Answers (6)

Posted by: m0del101 6 years ago
White Belt
0
you could modify this powershell script i use to remove java, it searches for the reg uninstall guid using the publisher and product name then uses msiexec to silently uninstall.

# Log file funtion        function time{(Get-Date -Format dd-MM-yyyy-hh:mm:ss)}    $logfile = "c:\temp\JRE-Uninstall.log"     Function LogWrite {Param ([string]$logstring)Add-content $Logfile -value ($(time) + " - $logstring ")}#Product to Remove$Product = '*Java*'#Publisher$Publisher = '*Oracle*'#32bit Uninstall Strings$32bitPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'#64bit Uninstall Strings$64bitPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'try{$JavaVersions = Get-ChildItem -Path $32bitPath, $64bitPath | Get-ItemProperty  -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like "$Product" -and $_.Publisher -like "$Publisher"} | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, UninstallString }catch{$_}if($JavaVersions -eq $null){exit LogWrite "Java not found"}$v = $JavaVersions.DisplayName |Out-StringLogWrite "detected $V"#Perform silent uninstall of targeted versionsforeach ($Version in $JavaVersions) {Write-Host $JavaVersions.DisplayName}do{ForEach ($Version in $JavaVersions){        $v = $Version.DisplayName |Out-String		$Uninstall = $Version.UninstallString.replace("MsiExec.exe /I","MsiExec.exe /X")    Write-Host $Uninstall    LogWrite "Removing $v $Uninstall"		Start-Process cmd.exe -ArgumentList "/k $Uninstall /qn /norestart"	   logwrite "Removed $v GUID $Uninstall"        Start-Sleep 60       try{$Javaremoved = Get-ChildItem -Path $32bitPath, $64bitPath | Get-ItemProperty  -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like "$Product" -and $_.Publisher -like "$Publisher"} | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, UninstallString }catch{$_}}}until($Javaremoved -eq $null)LogWrite "Removal complete"exit
Posted by: EdT 6 years ago
Red Belt
0
The simplest solution I use regularly is a bit of vbscript that instantiates the windows installer object and searches for a match on the product name string. Then it removes the associated MSI.  For all instances of that product name.
The actions are logged - in my case to an existing logfile set up as an environment variable by a control script, but it can of course be set to anything you choose. Return codes are yours to change according to need also.

Option Explicit
Dim WshShell, installer, appname1, appname2, comp, guid, a, fso, pname, pid, cache, exitcode, strCurrDir, strLog
exitcode=0
appname1="ALEPH"  'appnamex MUST BE UPPER CASE!
appname2=""

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strCurrDir = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%CURRDIR%")
strLog = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%LOG_FILE%")

' Connect to Windows Installer object
Set installer = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
WLog Now & " - Products Uninstalled (if any):"
on error resume next
For Each guid In installer.products   
   pname = installer.productinfo(guid, "InstalledProductName")
   If Instr(1,UCase(pname),appname1,1)>0 Then
      exitcode=1
 'wscript.echo guid
 cache = installer.productinfo (guid, "LocalPackage")
 'wscript.echo "msiexec.exe /x " & guid & " /qn /L*v "&chr(34)&"C:\logs\"&pname&"LOG.txt"&chr(34)
   WshShell.Run "msiexec.exe /x " & guid & " /qn /L*v "&chr(34)&"C:\logs\"&pname&"LOG.txt"&chr(34) ,1,true
      WLog Now & " - ProductName " & pname  & "  "  & "ProductGUID " & guid & "  " & "Cached MSI filename " &  cache 
   End If  
If appname2<>"" Then
   If Instr(1,UCase(pname),appname2,1)>0 Then
      exitcode=1
 'wscript.echo guid
 cache = installer.productinfo (guid, "LocalPackage")
 'wscript.echo "msiexec.exe /x " & guid & " /qn /L*v "&chr(34)&"C:\logs\"&pname&"LOG.txt"&chr(34)
   WshShell.Run "msiexec.exe /x " & guid & " /qn /L*v "&chr(34)&"C:\logs\"&pname&"LOG.txt"&chr(34) ,1,true
      WLog Now & " - ProductName " & pname  & "  "  & "ProductGUID " & guid & "  " & "Cached MSI filename " &  cache 
   End If
End If   
Next
Set installer = Nothing
a.close
wscript.quit(exitcode)

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sub WLog(sTxt)  'Needs: strLog = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%LOG_FILE%")
    Dim ts, sErrTxt
    On Error Resume Next
    Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(strLog, 8, True)
    ts.WriteLine sTxt
    ts.Close
    If Err.Number Then
        If Not fso.FileExists(strLog) Then
            sErrTxt = WScript.ScriptName & " - ERROR: Unable to write to log file '" & strLog & "' - Error " & Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description & vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "Log Entry: " & sTxt
            wshShell.LogEvent 1, sErrTxt
            WScript.Quit 114031
        End If
        WScript.Sleep 100
        Wlog(sTxt)
    End If
    On Error Goto 0
    Set ts = Nothing
End Sub
Posted by: cubefreak 11 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0

Hello,

I had a very similar problem today, and it took me a while to find an elegant solution. My application had the following UninstallString, with 'SOME GUID' being a different guid every time:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{SOME-GUID}\setup.exe" -runfromtemp -l0x0009 -removeonly

I managed to uninstall the whole thing in 3 CMD lines

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%A IN ('reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall /f "UNIQUE_DISPLAY_NAME" /s ^| FindStr /R "[{].*[}]"') DO SET GUID=%%A
set GUID=%GUID:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\=%
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\InstallShield Installation Information\%GUID%\setup.exe" -runfromtemp -l0x0009 -removeonly -s -f1"c:\complete\path\to\uninstall.iss"

So what this does, is search the part of the registry where the uninstallstrings are for the 'Display Name' (This name needs to be modified). The line that contains the GUID is then filtered out by searching for a regular expression with FindStr /R "[{].*[}]". The result is stored in variable GUID.

After the first line, the variable GUID should contain: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AND-THE-ENTIRE-GUID}

The whole path is then deleted by a search and replace, with a syntax I only discoverd today, for example, to replace 'teh' with 'the': VARIALBE = %VARIALBE:teh=the%. What remains is the GUID.

I then generated an uninstall.iss using the -r switch, and included it as a parameter with: -s -f1"c:\complete\path\to\uninstall.iss" (don't forget to include the full path if you do this, otherwise you may have unexpected results).

Hopefully, this will help someone, someday.

Cheers!


Comments:
  • Some fool downvoted Cubefreak's excellent answer. Thankyou very much.
    Careful with your UNIQUE_DISPLAY_NAME - I had two application names which differed by a * character and the script didn't respect batch file escaping. So I had to use another registry field to get a unique match.
    But it's automated, and done. Excellent work. - carl.bennett 7 years ago
Posted by: pjgeutjens 13 years ago
Red Belt
0
Depending on what the actual contents is of the installer, it might be a good idea to use a snapshot tool and create your own MSI installer for this application (from what you mentioned it sounds like and old Installshield installer)

That way you'll get a consistent installer and uninstaller.

PJ
Posted by: kardock 13 years ago
Second Degree Green Belt
0
i had to deal with this once;

i see 2 ways to get around this: you could add some code at the installation that will put the GUID in a text file which could be read at uninstall. or you could run a script that will check in the reg uninstall key for the GUID. either way is pretty easy to do.
Posted by: jnojr 13 years ago
Orange Belt
0
i see 2 ways to get around this: you could add some code at the installation that will put the GUID in a text file which could be read at uninstall. or you could run a script that will check in the reg uninstall key for the GUID. either way is pretty easy to do.


Well, I am just running the install, not packaging it. If there's a way to capture the GUID during install, I'd love to hear it.

As for the other way... the registry GUID changes, too. So I found a piece of VBScript that's supposed to hunt through all of the Uninstall keys for a specific text string and return the name of the key it's in, but I couldn't make that go, as I'm just not familiar with VBScript. If this was Linux, no sweat, I'd be done. But then, if this was Linux, I wouldn't have to deal with registries and changing GUIDs ;)
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