I have created a Basic MSI installation for an application that is normally distributed in an Installscript MSI package. The DLL file groups are not being uninstalled during a remove of this Basic MSI package. (They are correctly uninstalled in the IS MSI project.)
One difference is that these DLLs contained in the file group in the Basic MSI project have a key file, which I don't define in the IS MSI project.
I must be missing a straightforward concept here about the use of key files, but am currently stumped as to why it would orphan these files.
I'm reviewing documentation and relevant posts to figure this out, but if anyone can enlighten me, I would be most appreciative.
If you are installing both on a system, then you will see this behavior because in a basic MSI project the components are all flagged as "Shared" by default, meaning they will increment the count of components using the dll in their registry entries when installed, and when uninstalled will not remove it unless that count is zero.
This behavior is most often seen when upgrading an older install and the component codes do not match for the same DLL.
Also make sure you have not accidentally set the components to be Permanent as they won't be removed when this is done.
It was indeed due to that Shared flag being set to Yes and the application being installed elsewhere on the target system. (The first thing I had checked when I first noticed this was the "Permanent" setting. 😄 )
