2

I am seeing the following error while trying to uninstall. How can I uninstall the software when there is no folder WRT the software in the program files.

Note: I have deleted the software folder from program files.

Error Message:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException. could not load file or assembly or its dependencies. the system cannot find the file specified.

I need the solution on how to uninstall the software when there is no folder existing the program files.

Stein Åsmul
  • 39,960
  • 25
  • 91
  • 164
Sandy
  • 47
  • 1
  • 5

2 Answers2

1

Sounds like a very britty InstallUtil custom action that has a dependency on a file being installed with no exception handling if it's not found. Awesome! :)

Take the orginal MSI that you installed and edit it with Orca to remove the custom action from the InstallExecute sequence. Recache the MSI using the command:

msiexec /i FOO.MSI REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus /qb

Finally uninstall the application.

Stein Åsmul
  • 39,960
  • 25
  • 91
  • 164
Christopher Painter
  • 54,556
  • 6
  • 63
  • 100
1

Broken Uninstalls: There are a few ways to approach this such as 1) trying to run the repair sequence of the installed MSI which might be able to pull files down from the original installation location or 2) run the original installer itself again - as in the install sequence rather than the repair sequence (must be the exact MSI file used to install the software originally), etc... These approaches are all vulnerable to failure and generally need some "hacking" to succeed.

Microsoft FixIt: This all leads to the recommendation of the last resort solution that is "sort of official", it is the Microsoft FixIt tool. It can be used to clean out broken uninstalls by "unregistering" the installation rather than running the actual uninstall for it. It should work. Never use it if you don't need to, there are risks.

Logging & Debugging: The above should work, but here is information on how to log an MSI operation: Different ways to create and interpret MSI logs to narrow down the cause of the problem seen.

Links: Below some general-purpose MSI uninstall resources. The first link lists cleanup strategies for broken uninstall - very hacky some of it. The second link lists different ways to invoke uninstall of MSI files - there are a lot of ways:

Stein Åsmul
  • 39,960
  • 25
  • 91
  • 164