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Snapshot an UN-install?

Has anybody done this?

Scenario -

Legacy app on W2K pro desktops. InstallShield ver 3 circa 1996. Uninstall string like:

C:\WINNT\uninst.exe -y -f"C:\Program Files\Lagacy\program\DeIsL1.isu"

Of course, it is not silent - it throws up a message dialogue periodically especially around removal of shared components, etc. Which means I can't easily SMS the job.

So, how about snapshotting the removal, and then running the removal as an MSI. Of course I'd want to surpress any ARP info or cachinging of the uninstall MSI iteself.

Anybody done this?

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Answers (3)

Posted by: rrunciman 18 years ago
Yellow Belt
0
This may help you for your legacy uninstall :-

Add the -a switch to your legacy uninstall command line

When running in silent mode if unInstallShield encounters a shared file for which it would normally display the dialog box asking the user whether to remove the shared file, it will automatically reduce the reference count to zero and not remove the file. Therefore, running unInstallShield in silent mode is functionally equivalent to an uninstallation in which the user selects the "No to all" option when this dialog box first appears.
Posted by: williamp 18 years ago
Orange Belt
0
Great idea! But unfortunately -a is not read (or at least has no effect) on my instance of uninstall.exe.

And I also figure my original proposition is a bad idea anyway -- I would have no idea whether the shared files were actually needed by other applications so I would have to leave all such shared files on the system and therefore not be able to completely clean-up.

I guess it's a job for desk-side support manual uninstalls.

Regards,
William


ORIGINAL: rrunciman

This may help you for your legacy uninstall :-

Add the -a switch to your legacy uninstall command line

When running in silent mode if unInstallShield encounters a shared file for which it would normally display the dialog box asking the user whether to remove the shared file, it will automatically reduce the reference count to zero and not remove the file. Therefore, running unInstallShield in silent mode is functionally equivalent to an uninstallation in which the user selects the "No to all" option when this dialog box first appears.


Posted by: plangton 18 years ago
Second Degree Blue Belt
0
Hi WilliamP,

I've snapshotted an uninstall, but I think this type of thing should only be a last resort. For one thing, with most MSI snapshotting tools, yo'll need to make sure it captures file deletes and registry deletes. Also, when you "install" the msi, it puts an entry in the add/remove programs for an installed app, even though the installation is actually removing an app - so you'd want to hide it from the control panel.

In your case, I'd look at a vbscript using sendkeys to skip through the dialogs if you possibly can.

Hope that helps

Rgds

Paul
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