Launch my own uninstall.exe from Add or Remove Programs

[shirinmd]

I am using InstallShield 2009 basic msi project.
I need to launch my own uninstall.exe present in my installdir on clicking the remove button in Add or Remove program. ie during uninstallation my own uninstall.exe needs to be called instead of the default uninstallation process. Can someone help me with this?

[J_anitha]

Modify "UninstallString" value for the ProductGUID key under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall"

Give absolute path for your uninstall.exe as the value for "UninstallString".

rgds,
anitha

[shirinmd]

I had manually modified the uninstallstring to point to the absolute path of uninstall.exe, but that didn't work. It just did the normal uninstall of the program. What is actually used during uninstallation, since changing the uninstall string didn't have any effect?

[J_anitha]

You are right. I dint notice it was a basic MSI project.
Basic MSI, while installation creates an .msi file inside C:\Windows\Installer folder.
You have to uncheck "Hide operating system files" under Folder Options to view this folder.

This msi file is run when you try to repair\remove installed package.
Absolute path of this msi is stored in public property DATABASE.

[shirinmd]

Is there any way we will be able to override this functionality so that the custom uninstall.exe gets called?

[J_anitha]

well...i doubt it!
you may have to discuss this with Microsoft guys.

[MichaelU]

The ARP ignores the UninstallString entry for MSI installations. If you want to override this, you need to hide the default entry and create your own custom one. Heath Stewart had a series of blogs related to this; a good keyword for it is ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT. Note that doing this potentially exposes you to a lot of surprising Uninstall key cases to handle, especially related to patches, so I can't really recommend it.