The MSI stores the installation directory for the future uninstall tasks.
Using the INSTALLPROPERTY_INSTALLLOCATION property (that is "InstallLocation") works only the installer has set the ARPINSTALLLOCATION property during the installation. But this property is optional and almost nobody uses it.
How could I retrieve the installation directory?
Use a registry key to keep track of your install directory, that way you can reference it when upgrading and removing the product.
Using WIX I would create a Component that creates the key, right after the Directy tag of the install directory, declaration
I'd use MsiGetComponentPath() - you need the ProductId and a ComponentId, but you get the full path to the installed file - just pick one that goes to the location of your installation directory. If you want to get the value of a directory for any random MSI, I do not believe there is an API that lets you do that.
I would try to use Installer.OpenProduct(productcode). This opens a session, on which you can then ask for Property("TARGETDIR").
Recently I needed to automate Natural Docs install through Ketarin. I could assume it was installed into default path (%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Natural Docs), but I decided to take a safe approach. Sadly, even if the installer created a key on HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall, none of it's value lead me to find the install dir.
The Stein answer suggests AppSearch MSI function, and it looks interesting, but sadly Natural Docs MSI installer doesn't provide a Signature table to his approach works.
So I decided to search through registry to find any reference to Natural Docs install dir, and I find one into HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components key.
I developed a Reg Class in C# for Ketarin that allows recursion. So I look all values through HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components and if the Main application executable (NaturalDocs.exe) is found into one of subkeys values, it's extracted (C:\Program Files (x86)\Natural Docs\NaturalDocs.exe becomes C:\Program Files (x86)\Natural Docs) and it's added to the system environment variable %PATH% (So I can call "NaturalDocs.exe" directly instead of using full path).
The Registry "class" (functions, actually) can be found on GitHub (RegClassCS).
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("NaturalDocs.exe", "-h");
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
var process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start (startInfo);
process.WaitForExit();
if (process.ExitCode != 0)
{
string Components = @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components";
bool breakFlag = false;
string hKeyName = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE";
if (Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem)
{
hKeyName = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE64";
}
string[] subKeyNames = RegGetSubKeyNames(hKeyName, Components);
// Array.Reverse(subKeyNames);
for(int i = 0; i <= subKeyNames.Length - 1; i++)
{
string[] valueNames = RegGetValueNames(hKeyName, subKeyNames[i]);
foreach(string valueName in valueNames)
{
string valueKind = RegGetValueKind(hKeyName, subKeyNames[i], valueName);
switch(valueKind)
{
case "REG_SZ":
// case "REG_EXPAND_SZ":
// case "REG_BINARY":
string valueSZ = (RegGetValue(hKeyName, subKeyNames[i], valueName) as String);
if (valueSZ.IndexOf("NaturalDocs.exe") != -1)
{
startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("setx", "path \"%path%;" + System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(valueSZ) + "\" /M");
startInfo.Verb = "runas";
process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start (startInfo);
process.WaitForExit();
if (process.ExitCode != 0)
{
Abort("SETX failed.");
}
breakFlag = true;
}
break;
/*
case "REG_MULTI_SZ":
string[] valueMultiSZ = (string[])RegGetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER", subKeyNames[i], valueKind);
for(int k = 0; k <= valueMultiSZ.Length - 1; k++)
{
Ketarin.Forms.LogDialog.Log("valueMultiSZ[" + k + "] = " + valueMultiSZ[k]);
}
break;
*/
default:
break;
}
if (breakFlag)
{
break;
}
}
if (breakFlag)
{
break;
}
}
}
Even if you don't use Ketarin, you can easily paste the function and build it through Visual Studio or CSC.
A more general approach can be taken using RegClassVBS that allow registry key recursion and doesn't depend on .NET Framework platform or build processes.
Please note that the process of enumerating the Components Key can be CPU intense. The example above has a Length parameter, that you can use to show some progress to the user (maybe something like "i from (subKeysName.Length - 1) keys remaining" - be creative). A similar approach can be taken in RegClassVBS.
Both classes (RegClassCS and RegClassVBS) have documentation and examples that can guide you, and you can use it in any software and contribute to the development of them making a commit on the git repo, and (of course) opening a issue on it's github pages if you find any problem that you couldn't resolve yourself so we can try to reproduce the issue to figure out what we can do about it. =)
As stated elsewhere in the thread, I normally write a registry key in HKLM to be able to easily retrieve the installation directory for subsequent installs.
In cases when I am dealing with a setup that hasn't done this, I use the built-in Windows Installer feature AppSearch: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367578(v=vs.85).aspx to locate the directory of the previous install by specifying a file signature to look for.
A file signature can consist of the file name, file size and file version and other file properties. Each signature can be specified with a certain degree of flexibility so you can find different versions of the the same file for instance by specifying a version range to look for. Please check the SDK documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa371853(v=vs.85).aspx
In most cases I use the main application EXE and set a tight signature by looking for a narrow version range of the file with the correct version and date.
Try this: var sPath = this.Context.Parameters["assemblypath"].ToString();