Local SYSTEM Account Cannot Uninstall Package

[jtomiser]

I've seen something posted already about the "Setup resource decompression failure", but nothing that describes a solution to this particular problem:

I have an application from a third party created with InstallAware. I'm trying to run a script to uninstall it as the LSA. What I'm finding is that once uninstall is initiated, setup attempts to extract files to the %TEMP% directory and then proceed to run the uninstall. This is not an issue when the process is running under a normal user account. In such a case the files are extracted to C:\documents and settings\MyUser\temp . . . However, when running as the LSA the %TEMP% variable points to c:\windows\temp. The uninstall process gets as far as creating a directory, but bombs on extracting the files and throws up the "Setup resource decompression failure" message.

How can I maneuver around this problem and get the package uninstalled using LSA?

[mills]

Could you clarify if you are trying to use an InstallAware MSIcode script or are you using a shell/batch script?

[jtomiser]

I'm not the author of the application, I'm just trying to get an application that was created with InstallAware to uninstall under the LSA. It's a common thing to have done using distribution tools like SMS or Altiris. This is the first third party app I've ever had this problem with, and as far as I can tell it's because of the "unusual" way it tries to extract the entire setup to c:\windows\temp before initiating the uninstall. Please let me know if I can provide any more information that will help you understand this problem. Thanks!

[jtomiser]

BTW, if you want to see it happen (assume all InstallAware package work similarly) run an uninstall using this command to run it as LSA:

AT 08:00 /interactive <command to uninstall>

The above just creates a scheduled task to run a command as SYSTEM.

[mills]

Are you able to get a decompressed installer from the vendor?

Would it work for you to use a batch file, and set the TEMP and TMP environment variables to a writable directory so that decompression can work as desired?

Are you using a distribution tool in this instance? If so, which one?

What OS/SP are you running?

[mills]

Or try to reference the cached setup, which should be found in:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user(s)>\ApplicationData\{GUID}

or try searching for it in the registry.