CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wixwindows-installercustom-action
Zack
Zack

Reputation:

How to add a WiX custom action that happens only on uninstall (via MSI)?

I would like to modify an MSI installer (created through WiX) to delete an entire directory on uninstall.

I understand the RemoveFile and RemoveFolder options in WiX, but these are not robust enough to recursively delete an entire folder that has content created after the installation.

I noticed the similar Stack Overflow question Removing files when uninstalling WiX, but I was wondering if this could be done more simply using a call to a batch script to delete the folder.

This is my first time using WiX, and I'm still getting the hang of custom actions. What would be a basic example of a custom action that will run a batch script on uninstall?

Upvotes: 187

Views: 146146

Answers (9)

andrebroz
andrebroz

Reputation: 316

I found ahmd0's answer very valuable. But it's not complete without Nick Valey's very important comment. For those people that don't read comments I think it would be helpful to have this addition: the Upgrade column in ahmd0's answer table refers to the uninstall sequence that is a part of a major upgrade. You can read a good explanation about it in this stack overflow question. So the resulting table including major upgrade sequences will look like this:

Windows Installer properties table

Upvotes: 0

Rob Mensching
Rob Mensching

Reputation: 36026

The biggest problem with a batch script is handling rollback when the user clicks cancel (or something goes wrong during your install). The correct way to handle this scenario is to create a CustomAction that adds temporary rows to the RemoveFiles table. That way the Windows Installer handles the rollback cases for you. It is insanely simpler when you see the solution.

Anyway, to have an action only execute during uninstall add a Condition element with:

REMOVE ~= "ALL"

the ~= says compare case insensitive (even though I think ALL is always uppercased). See the MSI SDK documentation about Conditions Syntax for more information.

PS: There has never been a case where I sat down and thought, "Oh, batch file would be a good solution in an installation package." Actually, finding an installation package that has a batch file in it would only encourage me to return the product for a refund.

Upvotes: 44

JK82
JK82

Reputation: 445

Because i had to struggle with the same issue, the version which works for me with Wix v5 is:

    <InstallExecuteSequence>
       <Custom Action="DeleteFolderAction" Before="RemoveFiles" Condition="REMOVE"/>
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

Upvotes: 2

Eazael
Eazael

Reputation: 104

To execute an action only on Uninstall, neither on repair, nor upgrade nor install, you can use:

<Custom Action="ActionName" Before="InstallFinalize"><![CDATA[Installed AND NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE]]></Custom>

Upvotes: 1

yaluna
yaluna

Reputation:

EDIT: Perhaps look at the answer currently immediately below.

This topic has been a headache for long time. I finally figured it out. There are some solutions online, but none of them really works. And of course there is no documentation. So in the chart below there are several properties that are suggested to use and the values they have for various installation scenarios:

alt text

So in my case I wanted a CA that will run only on uninstalls - not upgrades, not repairs or modifies. According to the table above I had to use 

<Custom Action='CA_ID' Before='other_CA_ID'>
        (NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE) AND (REMOVE="ALL")</Custom>

And it worked!

Upvotes: 208

Bill Tarbell
Bill Tarbell

Reputation: 5234

Here's a set of properties i made that feel more intuitive to use than the built in stuff. The conditions are based off of the truth table supplied above by ahmd0.

<!-- truth table for installer varables (install vs uninstall vs repair vs upgrade) https://stackoverflow.com/a/17608049/1721136 -->
 <SetProperty Id="_INSTALL"   After="FindRelatedProducts" Value="1"><![CDATA[Installed="" AND PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED=""]]></SetProperty>
 <SetProperty Id="_UNINSTALL" After="FindRelatedProducts" Value="1"><![CDATA[PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED="" AND REMOVE="ALL"]]></SetProperty>
 <SetProperty Id="_CHANGE"    After="FindRelatedProducts" Value="1"><![CDATA[Installed<>"" AND REINSTALL="" AND PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED<>"" AND REMOVE=""]]></SetProperty>
 <SetProperty Id="_REPAIR"    After="FindRelatedProducts" Value="1"><![CDATA[REINSTALL<>""]]></SetProperty>
 <SetProperty Id="_UPGRADE"   After="FindRelatedProducts" Value="1"><![CDATA[PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED<>"" ]]></SetProperty>

Here's some sample usage:

  <Custom Action="CaptureExistingLocalSettingsValues" After="InstallInitialize">NOT _UNINSTALL</Custom>
  <Custom Action="GetConfigXmlToPersistFromCmdLineArgs" After="InstallInitialize">_INSTALL OR _UPGRADE</Custom>
  <Custom Action="ForgetProperties" Before="InstallFinalize">_UNINSTALL OR _UPGRADE</Custom>
  <Custom Action="SetInstallCustomConfigSettingsArgs" Before="InstallCustomConfigSettings">NOT _UNINSTALL</Custom>
  <Custom Action="InstallCustomConfigSettings" Before="InstallFinalize">NOT _UNINSTALL</Custom>

Issues:

Upvotes: 18

ahmd0
ahmd0

Reputation: 17313

There are multiple problems with yaluna's answer, also property names are case sensitive, Installed is the correct spelling (INSTALLED will not work). The table above should've been this:

enter image description here

Also assuming a full repair & uninstall the actual values of properties could be:

enter image description here

The WiX Expression Syntax documentation says:

In these expressions, you can use property names (remember that they are case sensitive).

The properties are documented at the Windows Installer Guide (e.g. Installed)

EDIT: Small correction to the first table; evidently "Uninstall" can also happen with just REMOVE being True.

Upvotes: 178

csexton
csexton

Reputation: 24813

You can do this with a custom action. You can add a refrence to your custom action under <InstallExecuteSequence>:

<InstallExecuteSequence>
...
  <Custom Action="FileCleaner" After='InstallFinalize'>
          Installed AND NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE</Custom>

Then you will also have to define your Action under <Product>:

<Product> 
...
  <CustomAction Id='FileCleaner' BinaryKey='FileCleanerEXE' 
                ExeCommand='' Return='asyncNoWait'  />

Where FileCleanerEXE is a binary (in my case a little c++ program that does the custom action) which is also defined under <Product>:

<Product> 
...
  <Binary Id="FileCleanerEXE" SourceFile="path\to\fileCleaner.exe" />

The real trick to this is the Installed AND NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE condition on the Custom Action, with out that your action will get run on every upgrade (since an upgrade is really an uninstall then reinstall). Which if you are deleting files is probably not want you want during upgrading.

On a side note: I recommend going through the trouble of using something like C++ program to do the action, instead of a batch script because of the power and control it provides -- and you can prevent the "cmd prompt" window from flashing while your installer runs.

Upvotes: 54

Sid
Sid

Reputation: 5375

I used Custom Action separately coded in C++ DLL and used the DLL to call appropriate function on Uninstalling using this syntax :

<CustomAction Id="Uninstall" BinaryKey="Dll_Name" 
              DllEntry="Function_Name" Execute="deferred" />

Using the above code block, I was able to run any function defined in C++ DLL on uninstall. FYI, my uninstall function had code regarding Clearing current user data and registry entries.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions