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deepakdnath
Level 2
‎Nov 12, 2015 03:17 AM

Launching Uninstall process does not WAIT - error 1618: Another installation is ....

In my projects installscript I uninstall previous versions before installing the current version of the software.

But when I run the setup file created by installshield, I always get the
error 1618: “Another installation is already in progress. Complete that installation before proceeding with install.”

Scenario is like this:
If I have two previous versions, I expect two uninstaller process run completely before one installer process run.
Looking at the error above, it feels that these processes are running concurrently or in a random order:
From the system restore, this following is the timing of process initiation.
Uninstall - 13.33.11
Install - 13.33.11
Uninstall - 13.33.11

Sometimes the installer is started first, while I expected the uninstallers to finish the job first:
Install - 16.17.14
Uninstall - 16.17.21
Uninstall - 16.17.27


To launch these uninstallers/installers, I use APIs such as “LaunchAppandWait” with LAAW_OPTION_WAIT
and/or “LaunchApplication” with INFINITE timeout.
So I expect these processes to wait until it terminates before moving on to the next.
But apparently it is not like it and the problem still persist.

Could you please let me know if this is a known issue?
Any solutions would be appreciated?
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DLee65
Level 13
‎Nov 12, 2015 10:55 AM

Are these MSI projects? If so are you trying to uninstall them during the Execute sequence?

Windows Installer is limited to one msi process at a time and if your install is a msi project and you try to uninstall a msi project during the execute sequence then it will error out because you are trying to run two MSI installs.

The fix for this is to create a suite installer, if possible, that manages the install of various MSI projects sequentially. For instance we have code that uninstalls an older version of our application that was created using Wise Installer. WE set this to execute before even running our main MSI installer.

If you cannot create a Suite installer then see if you can somehow sequence this for the UI sequence. I believe you will be OK with this type of sequence. The only drawback is that you cannot handle silent installs. The suite package can.

If you do not have IS 2015 Premium for the suite installer, then you may have to look into rolling your own bootstrapper that can handle this.
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