WIX - Cannot uninstall an MSI package

Question

I created an WIX Installer (using WIX 3.6) which ran perfectly fine. I am "installing" website on IIS and deploying DB using VSDBCMD command custom action. The DB custom action is the one creating the problem during uninstall. It shouldnt run actually during unistall and now during uninstall its failing with Error - "Removal success or error status: 1603." (From the Application Log)

So I now have 2 questions -> 1. How do I instruct WIX not to run the custom action during uninstallation? 2. How do I uninstall the remains of the earlier MSI. Any manual ways to do so?

Thanks in advance!

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 23 '11 at 18:23

6

I ran into a similar issue where I could not get an MSI package to uninstall downloading and running the Fixit application from Microsoft uninstalled it for me. You can download it at http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

answered Sep 23 '11 at 18:23

Mike

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This helps for non-WIX installations too (e.g. from an MSI built with a Visual Studio 2010 setup project). – ALEXintlsos Jul 10 '14 at 20:41

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

How do I instruct WIX not to run the custom action during uninstallation

To run a custom action only during install you can set this condition for it:

NOT Installed

How do I uninstall the remains of the earlier MSI. Any manual ways to do so?

To automatically remove older MSI installations, you can use the Upgrade element with your old MSI UpgradeCode. If you just want to cleanup some leftover files, you can try using a custom action.

WIX - Cannot uninstall an MSI package

2 Answers2