I'm having a problem when uninstalling our application on windows 2008 servers. My project is a basic msi project, that only copies files into the file structure) but it takes aprox 3 min 57 sek to uninstall it. When uninstalling on a windows 2003 server it takes 57 sek to uninstall.
both servers are virtual servers but we have reproduced it on real servers as well
After looking into the log it is pretty clear what is taking most of the time
Windows 2003 MSI (s) (B8:E4) 15:00:59:007: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: _RemoveFilePath MSI (s) (B8:E4) 15:01:04:725: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying CostingComplete property. Its current value is '0'. Its new value: '1'.
Windows 2008 MSI (s) (74: D4) 14:44:41:626: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: _RemoveFilePath MSI (s) (74: D4) 14:46:44:800: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying CostingComplete property. Its current value is '0'. Its new value: '1'.
In other words, what takes 5 sek in 2003 takes 2 min and 3 sek in 2008.
My Windows 2003 server is running MSIEXEC 4.5.6001.22159 and my Windows 2008 server is running 4.5.6001.22162
Can anyone tell me what the problem is and how to solve it?
Have made some test and can reproduce the problem.
1. Make a new basic MSI project in Installshield 2009 prof. 2. Make a component with dynamic linking to a folder. In my case there are 4600 files, 46 mb in size. 3. make a feature and link it to the component 4. Make it possible for the user to change the installdir. Thats it.
Install it on a Windows 2003 server. Install time: 0:21 Uninstall time: 0:31
Install it on a Windows 2008 server. Install time: 0:33 Uninstall time: 3:25
Unfortunately, this is not an issue that we would be able to resolve since Windows Installer is an operating system component. On Vista and Server 2008 machines, the costing and installation validation processes seem to take a longer amount of time compared with previous platforms (possibly due to the inclusion of Restart Manager support in MSI on these platforms, which checks to see which files in the installation are in use on a target machine). Windows Installer 5.0 that ships with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 provides a method of telling Windows Installer to skip certain things that are normally checked during an installation (see the MSIFASTINSTALL property reference for more information) that can help to improve performance.
