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I have a Wix installer which is designed to install (uninstall) a Windows service and another .exe file. When I uninstall the software using this installer, and enabling extra log, I see some error messages about unable to remove my installation folder, although it is indeed empty. The first message that appears on the log is like this:

DEBUG: Error 2911: Could not remove the folder MY_INSTALLATION_FOLDER.

The following errors are all about the same problem. My first guess is of course that there are some resources that were being used during the uninstallation. However, like I mentioned, all components in this folder were indeed removed and this is an empty folder by now. Also, this error is the first error in the log, meaning there was no error prior to removing this folder. For example, from the log I can see a series of FileRemove actions were taken right prior to the folder removal and they all succeeded. So it's gotta be that this folder itself was being used. But I really can't figure out why and what is holding this folder. By the way the software was indeed uninstalled since the final product removal returns 0 and every thing related to our software was removed (Windows service list, shortcuts, registries...) excepted this empty folder. It is not crucial but we definitely don't want to hear from our customer asking about this kind of error anyway(they are using auto-installation and the log is by default enabled and checked)

Please help. Thanks!

pilotcam
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tete
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1 Answers1

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Possible causes:

  • Other process is locking that folder. Use Unlocker to verify if that's the case.
  • Some folders have restricted permissions by Windows (e.g. C:\Windows\system32). Generally, you should avoid creating files under Windows own folders (unless it's required, I.e.: your'e installing a device driver).
  • Did you properly set folder permissions?
KMoraz
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  • Thank you for your list. My problem just disappeared all of sudden. But I will still mark yours as answer since I think give give a clear routine to find the cause – tete Jun 20 '12 at 10:49
  • My guess was that another process locked this folder, because it is its current directory for example. – Alexey Ivanov Jun 21 '12 at 08:20