How do i create the uninstall shortcut in Add/Remove Programs for my patch?

[vikas123]

How do i create the uninstall shortcut in Add/Remove Programs for my patch?

I have an Installshield installer which installs a product. I am providing the patches for my product using Visual Patch 2.0. But when i uninstall the product from the Add/Remove Programs then the files which are added through the Patch are left behind. I need to remove all the files that are added through patch. My problem is how to create the uninstall shortcut of my patch so that on running the uninstaller all the files modified or added using patch can be removed too.

Plaese help me out!

[Brett]

You would probably have to somehow modify the uninstall routine from the patch. Does the installer leave an uninstall configuration file that you can have the patch modify?

I know this is possible using Setup Factory as an installer but I am not sure about InstallShield.

The other option would be to turn off the backup option in the patch so that it does not leave backups of the files around.

[vikas123]

Isn't there any option in the Visual Patch 2.0 that create the uninstall shortcut of the patch itself so that the uninstaller can remove the patched files similar to Windows Update as corresponding to each Update the uninstall shortcut is created in the add/remove Programs.

Thanks!

[AXXESS]

You would probably have to somehow modify the uninstall routine from the patch.

Example please? This is a real issue as patched files remain on the user's system after uninstall...

[AXXESS]

As a workaround, a new setup could be built in SF7 (with the new version data), which would create a new uninstall file for that version data. The setup file could then be run in order to extract the new .xml file reflecting the latest version data. A patch file could then be built to include that latest uninstall data.

It would be great to have a setting in SF7 to "uninstall %AppFolder%" directory, which would then eliminate all files in the installation folder, including the patched files or files added after the original install...

[TJS]

I had the same issue with Installshield install and VP patches. VP does not include a feature that will add the patch to the add/remove list like you see with windows hotfixes for example.

What we had to do was include additional logic in the uninstall routine that would check to see if there were any file left over after the uninstall was complete and if so, delete them. The easiest way to do this is by deleting the folder that your program is installed to.

WARNING: The reason that products like installshield and setup factory will not touch unrecognized file by default is that they don't know:
1) if the user has installed the product in a folder that is used by more than the program itself, or
2) if the user has installed something into the same folder after the install was completed.

In our first implementation my QA team installed our app to the desktop folder and then uninstalled... guess what happened

We chose to configure our installer so that the user could not install to the root of any drive or any pre-existing folder. We chose not protect against number two.

You will need to reinstall the app for the uninstall to get updated... I found this to be a good opportunity/excuse to switch from installshield to SUF7.

[AXXESS]

In our first implementation my QA team installed our app to the desktop folder and then uninstalled... guess what happened

That could be a *little* problem...

So far the attempted workaround doesn't work either, as the install location is apparently written to the uninstaller xml file.

[Brett]

Originally Posted by AXXESS

Example please? This is a real issue as patched files remain on the user's system after uninstall...

What you do is add entries to the uninstall.xml file created by Setup Factory during installation. Just use XML actions in Visual Patch to add <File> entries to the <Uninstallfiles> section of your uninstall.xml file.

[AXXESS]

It would be nice if there was a more "user friendly" way of accomplishing this other than manually identifying all of the files that were patched and writing xml to tag each file for deletion during uninstall... feature request...