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I have a problem regarding the Visual Studio Setup Project and uninstalling an application.

This is a very basic installer, installing an ApplicationLauncher.exe C# .NET 4.0 console application and an Application.Common.dll (a dependency of the application ApplicationLauncher.exe).

The installation is a success, copying both the exe and DLL into the program files folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Company\ApplicationLauncher\.

My problem comes when uninstalling the application (through the MSI) - the uninstall seems successful, however it leaves Application.Common.dll behind, and doesn't remove it as I would expect.

I've used ProcessExplorer to make sure nothing else is using the DLL, no explorer windows are open during the uninstall.

Is this the expected functionality and do I have to create a custom action to remove this DLL? Or have I done something wrong? :S

m.t.bennett
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4 Answers4

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It seems I was able to fix this issue by renaming the solution and product name of the application, I'm not sure how this fixed it, but it did.

My only thoughts here is this traversed through to the installer, where the application installed into a different folder, thus not applying the same permissions to the DLL..

m.t.bennett
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It's not expected, no. It will happen if you ever done any of the following with your setup and installed it:

Marked the file Permanent.

Marked the file SharedLegacyFile true.

These are project settings, but if you set either of them and do the install it will stay behind. You can unset them in the setup project but that's too late - you've marked that component permanent or sharedlegacy on the system. If you use a brand new system, like a fresh virtual machine, reset these values if they are set and rebuild the MSI and do the install/uninstall does it still happen?

PhilDW
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  • I have never set the file Permanent or SharedLegacyFile to true, and yes I have tried resetting the values and rebuilding the MSI and it still leaves the DLL behind :( – m.t.bennett Apr 24 '14 at 00:47
  • Do the uninstall with msiexec /x {productcode guid in braces} /l*v and maybe the log may say why. – PhilDW Apr 25 '14 at 16:49
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I had the same problem. Then I have tried to install and unistall my app on Windows XP and that had worked.

optim1st
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Renaming the ProductCode is treating the symptoms not the cause. The problem occurs when the uninstaller doesn't remove the dll. The next install will use the dll again and can't remove it on an uninstall event because it's still used by the other program.

These steps hopefully solve the problem:

  1. Install your Software

  2. Open CMD (with admin privileges) and run:

    msiexec /x {ProductCode} /L*V "C:\CustomPath\FileName.log"

    The ProductCode can be found when hitting F4 on the Setup Project

  3. Open the log file and search for the lines that look something like this:

    Disallowing uninstallation of component: {6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8} since another client exists
Disallowing uninstallation of component: {A0A0FA84-CC0D-C5C4-1F57-169788C4482D} since another client exists
Disallowing uninstallation of component: {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} since another client exists

  4. All these components have to be removed from the registry by hand. To do this the GUID (e.g. {6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8}) first has to be converted into a packed/compressed GUID (e.g. 6F90CEC6801926076A29B2BCCAEEB38D). I found a Website where one can run a script to do this. Find the following code on the website and replace the right side with the GUID from the log.

    string inStrGUID = "{6CEC09F6-9108-7062-A692-2BCBACEE3BD8}";

  5. Open the registry (as an administrater) and search (Edit -> Find...) for the compressed GUID (uasually it's somewhere in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\)

  6. Delete the folder that is equal to the compressed GUID. The values inside the folder should be a path to the dll.

  7. Once deleted select the parent folder (...\S-1-5-18\components) and hit Edit -> Find...

  8. Repeat these steps (4-7) for all components from the log file.

  9. It's also a good idea to delete all files still present in the original folder that weren't uninstalled.

Can one prevent this from happening?

I don't know. This really isn't that easy to reproduce. Some other post on SO have suspected the install/uninstall option in Visual Studio to be the cause of the problem but I have a different theory:

This bug might be the result of RemoveExistingProducts in InstallExecuteSequence in the Setup being executed too late and therefore not removing dlls at the right time. This bug is known for years and can be fixed by doing this. If you need help with Orca this explains how to install it.

Rllyyy
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