11 replies to this topic

[rjprasadch]

Hi,

We have converted Installshield 6.3 Project to Installshield v12. It is Installscript project.

I have one problem in one scenario. First I have installed the new setup which is created with IS 12, then I have installed the setup which is created in IS 6.3.

Installation is working fine, but the problem is with Uninstallation. When I click on the REMOVE ICON in the Add/Remove Programs for uninstallation, it is not responding and it is not showing any message. But, when I click on the CHANGE button
it is uninstalling the application.

I am not sure what is causing the problem here. I am using the same GUID that is used for IS 6.3 in IS 12 Version.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions to fix this issue or i have to make any changes in the settings of the Project.

Thanks for your help.

[Taco Bell]

I'm still using IS6 and therefore haven't actually converted/updated any projects to a later version.

However, if you wish for the two installations to peacefully co-exist, then you probably should change the project GUID instead of leaving it the same.

[rjprasadch]

[Taco Bell]

Well you originally asked about the reverse scenario which is installing the old setup after the new one (hence them co-existing) and then supporting the old one's uninstaller. To achive that, you should the project GUIDs.

You can also still have your new setup overwrite the old one by having it uninstall the old one on-the-fly.

[Stefan Krueger]

I'm surprized that you have separate Change and Remove buttons. I thought these were (by default) only available for MSI based setups, while non-MSI setups have a combined Modify/Remove button.

[rjprasadch]

[Stefan Krueger]

Take a look in the registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cureent Version\Uninstall\{your setup's GUID}. You should see the uninstall command line there.

[Ozone]

I have also discovered that my InstallScript based installer is not creating the uninstall registry entry. And will not uninstall because the 'uninstall' argument is not being passed to the script.

My scripts were initially created in IS 6, then upgraded to DevStudio 9, and now ungraded to IS 15 SP2.

The very first line of the script is:
// Set the un-install string.
UNINSTALL_STRING = UNINSTALL_STRING + "Uninstall";

Then we check:
if (CMDLINE = "Uninstall") then
the uninstall code goes here.

Yet when this project is installed, the registry entry is not created.

I checked that the \General Information\Add or Remove Programs\Disable Remove Button setting is = NO.

This exact same script has been in production for 8.5 years in IS6 and IS9, but no longer uninstalls in IS15 SP2. This script has been battle tested.

If I find the solution, I will post it here. And as always, I welcome anyone who can post a solution sooner.

[Ozone]

Update: The uninstall registry entry is being created in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section of the registry instead of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section. Windows Add\Remove programs obviously looks for the entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

My code used InstallationInfo, and I have tried the newer CreateInstallationInfo without any change in results. The above call must come before the MaintenenceStart function. It is in MaintenanceStart that the uninstallation registry entry is created.

I thought that I could just add the registry entry by entering the values in \System Configuration\registry in the InstallShield UI. But the path would be different for Vista than it is in older OS's. In older OS's, the path was "\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{Your GUID here}\setep.exe". In asta la Vista it is in "\Users\theuser\AppData\Roaming\InstallShield Installation Information\{Your GUID here}\setup.exe".

So it looks like I will have to prototype the appropriate windows API and create the registry key with the appropriate value based on the OS. Unless Accresso fixes this 'problem'.

So why did my company spend thousands of dollars on the install package when I have to do all this coding?

Plan "B' will be to go back to using Dev Studio 9.

[Stefan Krueger]

Try setting ALLUSERS=TRUE early in your script.

[Ozone]

Stefan,

I made the changes to the script and there is no change in the install behavior.
The install still creates registry entries in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. I have created other new install (pure installscript) projects in version 15 and they uninstall perfectly.

I am going to test creating this project from scratch and see if that helps. I suspect that opening the project created in the older version of IS with the new IS version 15 might be causing the problem.

[Ozone]

Problem found and solved. This new version 15 of InstallShield is adding extra arguments to the UNINSTALL_STRING. My script is looking for the argument 'uninstall' that I added in the original script. InstallShield was adding two extra arguments so when the UNINSTALL_STRING was written to the registry, these extra arguments were in front of the 'uninstall' argument I added. My code never saw my uninstall argument. So I added this code to create my value for the uninstall string and then modify the InstallShield entry after the call to MaintenanceStart();.

The second chagnes are that I added the two lines of code into the function that installs the media. In the older code this was done in the 1st function in the script and worked in the older version 9, but not in version 15. The code was OK, but was not in the right place for the new version.