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wixwindows-installeruninstallation

I screwed up, how can I uninstall my program?

My Wix installer worked installing my program, but it's broken for uninstallation. A file is removed too early, and it's needed further down the line. The uninstaller fails and reverts its changes.

This means I can't remove the package from my machine, and hence can't install any further builds of my installer (a considerable inconvenience). How can I force removal of the package?

Solution

  • Update, Stein Åsmul: Injecting this newer list of cleanup approaches.

    1. Find your package in C:\Windows\Installer, where Windows keeps copies of installed MSI packages. The names are generated randomly, so you'll have to look at the creation dates of the files.

    2. Open the MSI file with Orca. (Unfortunately there is no simple download for the orca installer. You can get it by installing the "MSI Tools" of the Windows 10 SDK, and then searching for orca.msi in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits.)

    3. Delete the offending custom action from the CustomAction table

    Now you should be able to uninstall the package.

    UPDATE: You can find the actual cache MSI file using Powershell. That was for one package, you can also get for all packages (scroll down to first screenshot).