Silent Uninstall Leaves Entry in Add or Remove Programs

[TobiaszJason]

When using a silent uninstall (e.g. msiexec /uninstall {GUID} /passive), the entry of the install is not removed from the "Add or Remove Programs" Windows applet. (See the screenshot below).

[kevinpm]

The uninstall leaves an entry in add/remove programs, and if I try to remove the program now, I get an error message '1628: Failed to complete installation'

[TobiaszJason]

I believe this is a bug introduced with Installshield 2011 w/silent uninstalls. There was another similar issue that I ran into, see my other post here: http://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?t=196061.

I am also receiving a 1628 error now. I've been mucking with the registry and C:\Windows\Installer directory to get rid of the installation, but am having issues finding what needs to be removed.'

From my other post, I believe it is:

TobiaszJason wrote:
There are two fragments that are left over afte rthe silent uninstall:

(1) A registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Management\ARPCache\InstallShield_{GUID}]

I believe this is used for the "Add or Remove Programs" Windows applet. The entry for the application is removed when this registry key is removed.

and

(2) The cached installer:

C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\[GUID]

[kevinpm]

I have been searching for the GUID in the registry and deleting the entries that refer to the GUID. When you locate the GUID in the registry, there may be some folders that the registry entries refer to, and I delete them as well to clean things up.

I found a different uninstall string for my product at this location:

"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall\\InstallShield_" + szInstalledProductCode

If I execute that uninstall string, then the product seems to be getting removed completely.

[TobiaszJason]

Look at the UninstallString key at the registry entry you called out...for me it is something like:

"C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{GUID}\setup.exe" -runfromtemp -l0x0409 -removeonly

I've noticed that the only way to cleanly uninstall sometimes is to only use that setup.exe from the UninstallString.

[kevinpm]

I have an incident report filed - will report what they come up with.

[kevinpm]

The proper command line to use to uninstall an Installscript MSI project:

"[ProgramFilesFolder]InstallShield Installation Information\{Old ProductCode}\setup.exe" /uninst