How to uninstall with msiexec using product id guid without .msi file present

Question

I'm trying to automate the uninstallation of packages created using WiX for the purposes of changing the installed software stack & configuration without reprovisioning a whole OS. Eventually I'll use powershell scripting to do this but at the moment I can't seem to get my test package to uninstall interactively with cmd.

If I run:

msiexec /x '{A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8}'

msiexec /x A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8

I get:

"The installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Package."

If I run: msiexec /x {A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8}

I get:

"This action is only valid for products that are currently installed"

I've looked at the windows installer guide, the WiX documentation, msiexec documentation and used orca to go over the .msi myself but I've not really found anything that gives a clear picture of how an uninstall is processed. Is the .msi file required and if not then why does windows installer seem to think it is when given a GUID?

The WiX code for the .msi installer is:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='windows-1252'?>
<Wix xmlns='htp://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi' >

  <!--DO NOT COPY / PASTE THE PRODUCT ID GUID BELOW TO YOUR OWN WIX SOURCE -->

  <Product Id='A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8' Language='2057' 
           Manufacturer='COMPANYNAME IT-Operations' 
           Name='COMPANYNAMEServerListener' Version='1.0.0' 
           UpgradeCode='PUT-GUID-HERE'>

   <Package Id='*' Manufacturer='COMPANYNAME IT-Operations' Compressed='yes' />
   <Media Id='1' Cabinet='COMPANYNAMEServerListener.cab' EmbedCab='yes' />

    <Directory Id='TARGETDIR' Name='SourceDir'>
      <Directory Id='ProgramFilesFolder' Name='PFiles'>
      <Directory Id='COMPANYNAME' Name='COMPANYNAME'>
        <Directory Id='INSTALLDIR' Name='COMPANYNAMEServerListener'>
        <Component Id='MainExecutable' Guid='*' >
          <File Id='COMPANYNAMEServerListener.exe' 
                Source='COMPANYNAMEServerListener.exe' Vital='yes' 
                KeyPath='yes' />
          <ServiceInstall 
            Id='COMPANYNAMEServerListenerInstall'
            DisplayName='COMPANYNAMEServerListener'
            Description='Accepts and discards TCP connections on port 28028 to indicate that this server is alive and ready to be controlled'
            Name='COMPANYNAMEServerListener'
            Account='NT AUTHORITY\LocalService'
            ErrorControl='normal'
            Start='auto'
            Type='ownProcess'
            Vital='yes'           
          >
            <ServiceDependency Id='tcpip'/>
          </ServiceInstall>
          <ServiceControl Id="StartService" Start="install" Stop="both" Remove="uninstall" Name="COMPANYNAMEServerListener" Wait="yes" />
        </Component>
        </Directory>
        </Directory>
      </Directory>
      </Directory>

    <Feature Id='Complete' Level='1' >
      <ComponentRef Id='MainExecutable' />
    </Feature>

    <CustomTable Id ="COMPANYNAMEMetadata">
      <Column Id="Property" Type="string" Category="Identifier" PrimaryKey="yes"/>
      <Column Id="Value" Type="string"/>
      <Row>
      <Data Column="Property">InstallString</Data>
      <Data Column="Value">/qn</Data>
      </Row>
    </CustomTable>


  </Product>
</Wix>

Answer 1

Thanks all for the help - turns out it was a WiX issue.

When the Product ID GUID was left explicit & hardcoded as in the question, the resulting .msi had no ProductCode property but a Product ID property instead when inspected with orca.

Once I changed the GUID to '*' to auto-generate, the ProductCode showed up and all works fine with syntax confirmed by the other answers.