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MapInfo1
Level 2

Help!Manually Removing App Directory 'breaks' the Installer

Hello,

I work for Pitney Bowes Business Insight corporation (formerly MapInfo), and we use InstallAnywhere for the installation of one of our products, called MapMarker.

The installer is configured so that if an existing major version of the product is installed and a user attempts to install a new point release (ie - upgrading from version 13.0 to 13.1), the installer will enter 'upgrade mode' and just install necessary components.

We currently have an issue where a customer manually deleted the application's install folder, which includes files that the Uninstaller needs to remove the product.

With the app directory deleted, now there is no way to completely remove the application. Any attempts to reinstall the app and the installer will run in 'upgrade mode', which won't put down all the components necessary to execute the uninstall! It seems as if InstallAnywhere is referring to another property file on the system to check if an installation already exists - but for the life of me I can't find what it is.

Do you know of any such file or system variable that would be causing this issue? I need to completely all traces of the application from the system so that the installer won't enter upgrade mode and will perform a full install.

This problem presents itself on both Windows and Solaris platforms, if that helps.

I apologize if my post is unclear or demonstrates a lack of knowledge in the InstallAnywhere product. This is the first time I've had to dig into an issue like this one, and I didn't have a part in developing the installer for this product.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you
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(2) Replies
pv7721
Level 20

This issue would need most likely to be discussed with people inside your company that have developed the installer, in order to see all the places where the installer has put information about the fact that it has been installed. But given the fact that you've said that it happens on Windows and Solaris I would say that:

1) On Windows there must be an entry in Add/Remove programs. Trying to "Uninstall" MapMaker from there won't work but usually Windows when encountering a broking app that won't uninstall will prompt the user for removing the entry from the menu. Otherwise the end user might also need to manually search for MapMaker in the registry and remove all occurrences. There is also a Zero G Registry folder in Program Files which contains a single file .com.zerog.registry.xml which should be removed or put aside (if there are other InstallAnywhere applications installed)

2) On Solaris have the user search for the same file (.com.zerog.registry.xml) on the whole system and have the file(s) removed or renamed.

Normally the above should be enough to make the installer go in full mode installation, but if not, I guess that the very 1st recommendation is the only one to be applied.
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MapInfo1
Level 2

Removing the .com.zerog.registry.xml file did the trick!! Thanks so much for the quick reply.
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