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flotek72
Level 3

How to enable Repair button in Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Featues)

I have a Basic MSI Project that when Installed, I only see Uninstall and Change in Add/Remove Programs. I've looked at many posts on this forum and on Google but have not found a working solution on how to enable the Repair button. Here is a list of things I have tried:


    There is no ARPNOREPAIR property in my property manager.


    I created a NoRepair DWORD key with the value of 0 and a NoModify DWORD key with the value of 1 in the Uninstall registry key for my company's product. I tried every combination of values for these 2 keys and nothing worked.


    Disable No Repair is set to No in General Information in InstallShield.


    I found no InstallScripts or Custom Actions set up that would disable that Repair button.


Any ideas on how to get this Repair button to show?

Update: After a little more digging, it looks like the registry key for my company's product was disabled using SystemComponent DWORD set to 1. A new registry key was created with a custom action which is the entry that shows in Add/Remove Programs. I have still tried everything above on this CA registry key with no luck in getting the Repair button to show.
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flotek72
Level 3

Is it possible that because the registry key under the Uninstall path was created by a Custom Action rather than InstallShield itself, that the Repair button is not showing? Could this be a bug?

Update: Just did some testing with some other company's product on my computer and I'm really thinking this is a bug. Probably Microsoft related. To test, I exported a GUID key from the Uninstall path, then changed the GUID slightly and reimported the old GUID. I added the SystemComponent DWORD key with a value of 1 to the old GUID. Then I added a NoRepair DWORD set to 0 in the new GUID and under Add/Remove Programs it shows the product twice (which is expected). But one of them has the Repair button and one doesn't. This only happens for the Repair button. Modify button and Uninstall button can be shown or unshown based on the NoModify and NoRemove keys.
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flotek72
Level 3

Learned a few more things while testing some more. It appears like the WindowsInsaller DWORD key needs to be added. Also, The new registry entry that is created as a custom action will have to have the same name as the GUID that was used for the original entry. This will essentially overwrite the original entry and function as if it was created by the installer itself.
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