1

I installed my web application via an msi. When I try to unistall the application via add/remove programmes an exception occurs during the uninstall and the uninstall never completes. Is there any way I can get my application uninstalled or work around for this?

Amateur
  • 189
  • 4
  • Do you not have any more information than that? Details of the exception might help, or did anything appear in your event log? What is the application, I'm guessing it is something you've developed yourself? – Bryan Feb 09 '11 at 23:29
  • This is the exception information, it is an application I developed myself: Error 1001. Error 1001. An exception occurred while uninstalling. This exception will be ignored and the uninstall will continue. However, the application might not be fully uninstalled after the uninstall is complete. --> Could not find file 'app_offline_template.htm'. – Amateur Feb 09 '11 at 23:31

2 Answers2

1

Does your setup have any custom actions? If you specified to check error code this could trigger rollback of both install and uninstall.

Does the uninstall actually complete, or does it roll back leaving the application still installed?

In cases where an uninstall fails for a product that is in the wild, the solution is normally to develop a minor update for the MSI and deliver it as a patch. A minor update actually changes the cached installation database on the system and hence you are able to fix any errors in the uninstall sequence. Then you run the normal uninstall sequence afterwards. This is as opposed to a major upgrade which is essentially an uninstall of the existing product and a reinstall. Creating such a patch is quite a bit of work, and fairly complicated. If the application isn't "in the wild" I normally end up zapping the installation using MsiZap.exe from the MSI SDK and then resolve the errors in the MSI before testing again.

Stein Åsmul
  • 2,616
  • 6
  • 26
  • 38
0

Best way would be to use the MSIZAP.exe tool to remove the Installer entries for the MSI package and then use Orca or MSIVAL to validate your MSI. It seems as if your MSI contains ICE validation errors that will need to be resolved.

craziac
  • 356
  • 1
  • 4