PowerShell to msiexec uninstall with parameters inside function

Question

I have been uninstalling software via below my powerscript. But I have an issue inside powershell script. When attempting to run any software then I got the following the error message.

My error message :

PS C:\Windows\system32> doRemoveMSI -msi "msiexec.exe" -arguments "/x {EFF8AB9B-9551-4994-9FD2-D40A5A2E9B31}"
Index was outside the bounds of the array.
At line:123 char:65
+ ... Name doRemoveMSI: $msi, a0 = '$($arguments[0]),a1='$($arguments[1])'"
+                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], IndexOutOfRangeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.IndexOutOfRangeException
 
Remove-Symantec doRemoveMSI: msiexec.exe, a0 = '/x {EFF8AB9B-9551-4994-9FD2-D40A5A2E9B31},a1=''
Remove-Symantec doRemoveMSI: successful result is System.Diagnostics.Process, exitcode = 0
Remove-Symantec doRemoveMSI: success, return = 0
Remove-Symantec doRemoveMSI: exit
0

Here is my script:

[CmdletBinding()]
##
## rem-sep.ps1
##
[String] $logname  = 'Application'
[String] $source   = 'IntuneWinApp'
[String] $pName    = 'Remove-Symantec'
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
Set-Variable evtError        1
Set-Variable evtWarning      2
Set-Variable evtInformation  4
Set-Variable evtAuditSuccess 8
Set-Variable evtAuditFailure 16
function NewMyEventlogSource
{
    Param
    (
        [string] $source,
        [string] $logname
    )
    [bool] $success = $false
    try
    {
        $success = [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::SourceExists( $source )
    }
    catch [ System.Security.SecurityException ]
    {
        ## we aren't running as a privileged account so we
        ## couldn't search the security log (and maybe others).
        ## we have no choice but to try to create the $source.
        ## however, that will probably also fail.
    }
    if( -not $success )
    {
        try
        {
            [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::CreateEventSource( $source, $logname )
            $success = $true
        }
        catch
        {
            $e = $_
            Write-Warning "Cannot create event source '$source', error $e"
        }
    }
    $success
}
function WriteMyEventlog
{
    Param
    (
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [String] $logname,
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [String] $source,
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [String] $message,
        [ValidateSet( 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 )]
        [Int]    $type = $evtInformation,
        [ValidateRange( 1, 65535 )]
        [Int]    $eventId = 1,
        [ValidateRange( 0, 32767 )]
        [Int16]  $category = 0,
        [Bool]   $override = $false
    )
<#
    if( [String]::IsNullOrEmpty( $message ) )
    {
        $ex = New-Object System.ArgumentException( "Message parameter may not be null or empty" )
        throw $ex
    }
#>
    if( NewMyEventlogSource -source $source -logname $logname )
    {
        [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::WriteEntry(
            $source,
            $message,
            $type,      ## [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::EventLogEntryType enum
            $eventId,
            $category
        )
    }
    elseif( $override )
    {
        [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::WriteEntry(
            'Application', ## 'Application' always exists in the Application log
            $message,
            $type,
            $eventId,
            $category
        )
    }
}
function log
{
    $str = $args -join ' '
    Write-Host $str
    WriteMyEventlog -logname $logname -source $source `
        -message $str `
        -type $evtInformation `
        -eventid 1 `
        -category 0 `
        -override $true
}
function logE
{
    $str = $args -join ' '
    Write-Host $str
    WriteMyEventlog -logname $logname -source $source `
        -message $str `
        -type $evtError `
        -eventid 99 `
        -category 0 `
        -override $true
}
function doRemoveMSI
{
    Param
    (
        [String] $msi,
        [String[]] $arguments
    )
    log "$pName doRemoveMSI: $msi, a0 = '$( $arguments[ 0 ] )', a1 = '$( $arguments[ 1 ] )'"
    <#
    $fileExists = Test-Path $arguments[ 1 ] -PathType Leaf
    if( -not $fileExists )
    {
        logE "$pName doMSI: file doesn't exist '$( $arguments[ 1 ] )'"
    }
    #>
    $result = Start-Process -Wait -Verb RunAs -FilePath $msi -ArgumentList $arguments -PassThru -WorkingDirectory $pwd.Path
    if( $? )
    {
        $return = 0
        if( $null -eq $result )
        {
            log "$pName successful result from Start-Process is null"
        }
        else
        {
            if( $result -is [System.Diagnostics.Process] )
            {
                $return = $result.ExitCode
                log "$pName doRemoveMSI: successful result is System.Diagnostics.Process, exitcode = $return"
                if( $return -eq 1619 )
                {
                    logE "$pName doRemoveMSI: a lie! msiexec error 1619 on '$( $arguments[ 0 ] )' '$( $arguments[ 1 ] )'"
                }
            }
            else
            {
                $return = $result.ToString()
                log "$pName doRemoveMSI: successful result is type $( $result.GetType().FullName )"
            }
        }
        log "$pName doRemoveMSI: success, return = $return"
    }
    else
    {
        $e = $error[ 0 ]
        logE "$pName doRemoveMSI: error $e"
        $return = -1
    }
    log "$pName doRemoveMSI: exit"
    return $return
}
##WriteMyEventlog $logname $source $message $type $eventId $category $override

Answer 1

To make your function work as designed, you must pass the arguments individually, given that the -arguments parameter expects an array ([string[]]), whose 2nd element ([1]) you're trying to access:

doRemoveMSI -msi "msiexec.exe" -arguments '/x', '{EFF8AB9B-9551-4994-9FD2-D40A5A2E9B31}'

However, note that passing this array through to Start-Process's -ArgumentList parameter as-is may fail, namely if any of your arguments contain spaces, due to a long-standing bug that won't be fixed for the sake of backward compatibility (see GitHub issue #5576).

If you need to deal with such arguments, you have two options:

• Redesign your function to accept a single [string] only, and require passing all arguments encoded in a single string, the way you attempted ("/x {EFF8AB9B-9551-4994-9FD2-D40A5A2E9B31}"), which puts the burden on the caller to use embedded double-quoting as necessary.

• Stick with the [string[]]-based design, but pre-process the array to enclose any elements that contain spaces in embedded "...", and if the elements themselves contain ", such instances must be escaped as "" for msiexec.exe

  $arguments = $arguments.ForEach({ 
    if ($_ -match '[ "]') { '"{0}"' -f ($_ -replace '"', '""') } else { $_ } 
  })