Registry key remains behind if product is deployed using Active Directory
I have an interesting problem. If I deploy a setup MSI package using Active Directory and then the user uninstalls the product later using Add/Remove Programs (ARP), the uninstall does not remove the ARP entry for the product. The program is uninstalled, the desktop icon and start menu icons are removed.
However, one registry key remains under HKCR\Installer\Products\. If I delete this registry entry then the ARP entry goes away.
If I install the app directly on the local machine the registry key is created again. When I uninstall using ARP the registry key is removed.
Is this behavior because the program was installed in the SYSTEM context rather than the user context? Is it safe for me to create a custom action that deletes this key? Would deleting this key affect Active Directory at all or the Group Policy for this package?
If I uninstall the program using Active Directory then the registry key is removed.
Has anyone else worked around this issue? Any ideas on the best way to handle this scenario?
I did some further testing and proved that the issue is not directly related to the setup running in the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM context. I used the CMD to create a AT 14:45 msiexec.exe /qb /i C:\Test\MyMSI.msi . This creates a system task that will execute at 2:45PM and runs the task in the SYSTEM context. After I was able to successfully uninstall the app as a local admin without any problems and the offending registry key was successfully removed.
Something about Active Directory is causing this to hiccup and I don't dare to create an action to remove the registry key.
