Problem uninstalling app via GPO

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I have a vendor-provided MSI that I successfully applied to all my computers
several months ago. Now, the vendor has an upgraded version available. I
tried to use the Upgrade tab in a new GPO, to upgrade the old version.
Unfortunately, it is unable to upgrade the older version. When the computer
is booting up, it says "Removing managed software..." (if I used the
Uninstall option on the Upgrade tab), or "Installing managed software..." (if
I used the "upgrade over" option on the Upgrade tab). In both cases, it
hangs there forever and never moves on to the login prompt. I enabled
verbose Windows installer logging, and was able to see that there is a custom
action in the vendor's MSI which never completes. There is no error, it just
says that it is starting the custom action and then ... nothing.

Any idea of what actions I can take to get this software upgraded through
Group Policy? If we have to go manually uninstall it from every computer,
it's going to be a real nightmare.
 
Simulate a silent uninstall as follows...

1 - Install the original MSI on a PC using the command line;
MSIEXEC /i (path to MSI file) /qb+

2 - Now uninstall using the following command line;
MSIEXEC /x (path to MSI file) /qb+

If the custom action is trying to interact with the user (often the
case), then it should be visible. This might give some clue as to what
is going on.

Valuable lesson. Always check that an MSI uninstalls as well as
installs before rolling out!
 
Thanks Andy, the /qb+ switch is a good troubleshooting technique.. will use
in the future.

I agree completely on the uninstall test.. and I thought I was covered by
testing a manual install/uninstall of the MSI. From now on I will also test
an uninstall via GPO, on everything I deploy. :|

It turns out this particular vendor had acknowledged (but not publicized)
the problem, and had a fixed MSI available. It worked to redeploy the
package using the original GPO and the fixed MSI, then upgrade using a new
GPO with the upgraded MSI. A bit of a pain, but better than manually
uninstalling from 400 computers.
 
Back
Top