Visual Studio Setup

Installation and containerization of the Visual Studio family of products

Uninstall Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Visual Studio Setup

Windows Installer 4.5 Beta 2 Available

April 1, 2008 Apr 1, 2008 04/1/08
Heath Stewart
The Windows Installer team released Windows Installer 4.5 Beta 2 recently. While not a lot has visibly changed since the first beta for which I provided an overview, it's important to note that a new column was added to the CustomAction table since changes to column types are not supported in a transform or patch but adding a new column is ...

Unchanged Files Break Patch Uninstall

June 28, 2007 Jun 28, 2007 06/28/07
Heath Stewart
I've discussed a couple different reasons that Windows Installer 3.0-style patches - those with the MsiPatchMetadata table in the patch package itself - might not be uninstallable. I explained another reason in a discussion about the new patch build support in Windows Installer XML (WiX) v3 recently, describing why unchanged files should not ...

Uninstallable Patches that are not Uninstallable

June 22, 2007 Jun 22, 2007 06/22/07
Heath Stewart
Patching with Windows Installer is the act of applying a pair of transforms in a patch to a Windows Installer product, then repairing that product. Any changes made in the transforms affect the aggregate view that Windows Installer reinstalls. This is displayed in the diagram below, where the bottom layer is the components in the product MSI, ...

Uninstall Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta before Installing the Release

December 18, 2006 Dec 18, 2006 12/18/06
Heath Stewart
Before installing the release of Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1, you must uninstall the Service Pack 1 Beta. If you do not uninstall the beta first, you will receive the following message localized appropriately for Windows, "The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service because the program to be upgraded may be ...

Source Resolution during Patch Uninstall

December 9, 2006 Dec 9, 2006 12/9/06
Heath Stewart
There are a number of guidelines to prevent requiring source media for patch installation. These guidelines can also help prevent requiring source media during patch uninstall, but there are a number of caveats. Recall from Rebuilding the Installer Cache that the baseline cache contains files that were replaced. But files that get replaced don...

Be Careful or Even Avoid Using Type 35 Custom Actions

June 14, 2006 Jun 14, 2006 06/14/06
Heath Stewart
My blog was pretty quiet for a while because of a problem we ran into regarding Windows Installer type 35 custom actions. These custom actions change the target location for a directory.Developer Division uses type 35 custom actions for vertical integration with other editions of our Visual Studio products, so that installing products with ...