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I have a product installation that has been patched with one small update patch which is uninstallable. Is there any difference if I first uninstall the patch and then product installation or if I select the uninstall of the product while the patch is still installed? Product and patch installations are created using WiX tools.

Stein Åsmul
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Zlatko Lovcevic
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1 Answers1

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The final result of both ways to uninstall is the same - the product is uninstalled. However, you might potentially face with other problems in the first case, when you first uninstall a patch, then the product.

I would recommend you to get acquainted with this article to understand how it all works. The end of the page mentions uninstallable patches. Afterwards, be sure to check other Heath's blog posts about patching, like:

Finally, you might want to browse other "installation" posts on that blog - it contains lots of useful info.

Yan Sklyarenko
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  • Thanks for the quick answer. I asked this question because it seems that my small update patch somehow always stays orphaned after I uninstall the product installation. Is there something else besides failed installation that causes patch to become orphaned? – Zlatko Lovcevic Oct 03 '11 at 13:16
  • I suspect there is a number of reasons apart from the failed installation. However, I don't have enough knowledge to explain the bits and pieces. I strongly suggest you read the first article in the answer above and project it to your solution. When I had a strange problem with patches (don't remember exactly what it was), the low-level explanation how it all works (like in the article above) helped a lot! – Yan Sklyarenko Oct 03 '11 at 13:26