I have a Basic MSI project. I am creating the directory structure using the CreateFolders action, but I am filling the content of those folders using custom actions, because I need to unzip things into them. I have no key files set for any of my components. I also use a custom action to delete my installation's top-level directory and everything underneath it.
After I uninstall, the paths to each of my folders installed using CreateFolders is still listed under Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders. Is this normal? Are these keys getting left behind because I'm not using a custom action to delete my folders?
I figured out why they were getting leftover during uninstall. My INSTALLDIR value was not correct during the uninstall. However, when I peform an upgrade the keys pointing to the old version do not get deleted. The actual folders are getting removed, but not the keys under Installer\Folders.
Anyone have any idea on why this is? I've seen a couple of other threads about this without any answer.
okay it seems the problem is you need to have at least one file installed with each component. This makes it difficult if you just need to create an empty folder, because it won't be removed from the registry correctly without creating a dummy file then deleting it during the installation.
Note that this registry information is maintained by Windows Installer and therefore we don't have any information available as to how information is stored here or when it should be removed. Unfortunately, no documentation is available regarding these registry keys as they are considered private configuration data owned by Windows Installer.
