nicholas554
23rd June 2005 15:33 UTC

Can uninst.exe be upgraded?
Hey all.

The application that I work on has an automatic update feature. That means that the user just clicks on update, and all the new files are downloaded from the server and installed.

Here's the problem. The autoupdate feature can install new services and shell extensions, and whatnot. BUT, if the user tries to uninstall the application, it will uninstall it with the OLD uninstaller, the one that had no clue about services and shell extensions.

I was thinking that I could just download the newer uninst.exe as well and replace it. If the user would run it, in theory, it should run the new service uninstall sequence as well.

Should I expect any real life situations where this will not work? This isn't a very small application, so it's required that the uninstall sequence works flawlessly.

Thanks in advance for the info.

nicholas554
23rd June 2005 15:41 UTC

Just to make this clearer.

The assumption at hand is that I update everything just right from the application.

The question is: Would the newer uninstaller have any incompatibility issues with the old installer? I've run a regmon on it, and it doesn't seem to get any relevant information from the registry. Is the uninstaller self-contained, or does it require information that may have not been supplied by the old installer version?

Or, simpler yet, can a newer uninstaller properly function with an old installation given that the uninstall script's requirements are satisfied?

Joost Verburg
23rd June 2005 16:03 UTC

It should work just fine, the uninstaller is self-contained.