Uninstalling my uncompressed build

[stampy]

When I build an Uncompressed Directory Layout version of my setup, I can’t uninstall it using Add/Remove Programs or my shortcut Uninstall link. I get the “Browse for Folders” dialog but when I navigate to the folder and select it, this Browse dialog keeps popping up and it won’t let me uninstall. I’ve tried copying the folder to a local drive, but the "Browse" dialog still won't let me select it. Using Windows Explorer I can naviagate directly to the folder and uninstall from there without any problems.

I’ve read the Help on Uncompressed builds and Source Resolution, and I looked through the Tech Support but so far haven’t come up with anything. Either I’m missing something obvious or I somehow did something in my script to break this behavior. Any suggestions to help me troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

[Gizm0]

When uninstalling a Uncompressed build, the original sources should be present (CD/DVD, directory etc).If all are correct, then the product should uninstall properly.

[MichaelNesmith]

Actually, sources are never required for uninstalls.

I guess something strange is going on in your setup script. Do you have any plug-ins or other commands that may be requesting access to build media (i.e. setup sources) that are called before or after your uninstall?

[stampy]

Yes, that looks like the problem. In the pre-req stage I use File Bag to install a bootstrap dll of mine that I end up calling several times. If, instead, I install this bootstrap dll from “Support Files” then my uncompressed uninstall works.

I seem to recall that I initially had my bootstrap dll in Support Files but I took it out and used File Bag instead because I needed flexibility with the source location of the file. My source path may vary depending on how things map out with our version source control (we branch a lot) and with Support Files I have to select the absolute path to my files. I switched to File Bag so I could provide a Compiler Variable pointed to our build root (branch) followed by the relative path to my dll. I guess this would explain why uncompress uninstall once worked and then stopped working.

I guess I have to go back to using Support Files even though I’m anticipating getting annoyed when I have to reedit my setup project each time we branch -- in order to update the path to my bootstrap file. Can I request a feature where Support Files (and Creatives) can take a variable?

Thanks for the help!

[MichaelNesmith]

Is your pre-req code also running during uninstall? Specifically, the parts that rn the File Bag command? The "proper" fix for this would be making sure you call File Bag only at install time.

If you also need the DLL at uninstall time, consider using Support Files. If that is not an acceptable approach due to the reasons you mention below, maybe you can "cache" the DLL somewhere during install, and then reference that location directly during uninstall...

[stampy]

Your suggestions sound like they will work for me. I’ll see about making the distinction on how I use my DLL: using File Bag for re-req install needs and a cached version for pre-req uninstall needs.

Btw – at uninstall time, I use my DLL to determine if our application is currently running (not that straightforward for us) and if so, telling the user to shut it down first. When I did some early IA testing I seem to recall having been able to uninstall the associated app while it was still running – with our particular app, this naturally lead me to think that in rare cases that if some our customers try this, they would get confused with any subsequent unexpected behavior. Catching this early would hopefully reducing our customer support calls by a fraction . The pre-req stage seemed like a good place for this check.

Thanks again for the assistance.

[MichaelNesmith]

You can also use the Terminate Program command, if you want to close your application.