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Jun 8th, 2017, 01:21 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Registered User
Installers- and Uninstalling
Hi there!
This is about uninstall methods of deployment software for a VB6 application which will be replacing the old Wise suite. Wise was very good although it didn't tick every single box, and despairing if there is anything cost effective enough to match it these days.
Here's a list of some (the obvious top_of_the-liners are way over budget):
From the other thread:
Some more recent
Now these may or may not suit everyone's requirements, but the majority of them should. However the big issue for me is myapp related stuff that gets put on the disk after the installation. Specifically myapp related config files and shortcuts.
Here's my own particular issue in regards to a scenario in un-installation:
The user may wish to create extra myapp related files in appdir. Fine, but they will remain on the disk after uninstall. The user may wish to retain some or all of these files/directories for whatever purpose. The same with myapp shortcuts. Easy enough to create a startmenu directory with the app link, but what about other created shortcuts to user files related to myapp? The uninstaller will want to deal with them in the same way.
Edit: Ideally the installer will have a facility to allow myapp to log all user file/directory creations (or deletions) to a section in its uninstall dat file.
However, any file/directory movements in the myapp directory (or shortcut directory) made outside of the myapp GUI might want to be handled differently in the uninstall process.
Inno Setup appears to have the means of addressing this, but there are issues. The code in this thread was very kindly added some years ago, but the Pascal code doesn't compile well at all in the recent release of Inno -it's just the spaces between operator/operand inserted by the BBCode. Plus it does not present a GUI to the user with checks for retention of all the extra files & directories.
Furthermore, Inno is not well received (also here) these days by some of vbforum's veteran posters.
Any suggestions as to what is the best way forward much appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
Last edited by lmstearn; Jun 9th, 2017 at 05:51 AM.
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Jun 9th, 2017, 10:24 AM
#2
Re: Installers- and Uninstalling
In the past I used InstallShield, Wise and of course the VB6 Setup.
I've also tried other ones (which I did not find useful).
For over 15 years I've been using InnoSetup successfully, and I've never had any problems.
Surely InnoSetup is very powerful, and that's why it's very important to study it and learn how to use it.
If you are interested in getting help on InnoSetup, its forum is the right place.
However, if I understand correctly, your problem can be solved by pointing to the paths and/or files to be removed in the section:
[UninstallDelete]
Example:
Code:
[UninstallDelete]
Name: {app}\Attach\Customers; Type: filesandordirs
This will delete all files and folders created by the user in \Customers subfolder.
When you create folders on installation in [Dirs] section then you have to include the uninsalwaysuninstall flag, also:
Code:
[Dirs]
Name: {app}\Attach; Flags: uninsalwaysuninstall
Name: {app}\Attach\Customers; Flags: uninsalwaysuninstall
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Jun 10th, 2017, 11:13 AM
#3
Thread Starter
Registered User
Re: Installers- and Uninstalling
Originally Posted by gibra
In the past I used InstallShield, Wise and of course the VB6 Setup.
I've also tried other ones (which I did not find useful).
For over 15 years I've been using InnoSetup successfully, and I've never had any problems.
Surely InnoSetup is very powerful, and that's why it's very important to study it and learn how to use it.
If you are interested in getting help on InnoSetup, its forum is the right place.
However, if I understand correctly, your problem can be solved by pointing to the paths and/or files to be removed in the section:
[UninstallDelete]
Example:
Code:
[UninstallDelete]
Name: {app}\Attach\Customers; Type: filesandordirs
This will delete all files and folders created by the user in \Customers subfolder.
When you create folders on installation in [Dirs] section then you have to include the uninsalwaysuninstall flag, also:
Code:
[Dirs]
Name: {app}\Attach; Flags: uninsalwaysuninstall
Name: {app}\Attach\Customers; Flags: uninsalwaysuninstall
Thanks. Actually emailed many of the OEMs in the above list, but only one has responded to date. Installmate from Tarma. So from the quality of his answer and the content on his site, I recommend that for consideration over the others.
But to get the result either way it's going to be fiddly with any Installer.
Yes, your answer fits the bill, but not if the user wishes to retain some of the content. The script will be quite large, but due to the limitations of the "Pascal Script", larger than expected, due to the enormous amount of begins and ends.
Posted it here for if anyone is interested, or peruse the attachment.
Attachment 148775
There's an excellent, but very old paper on Inno Setup found here.
Last edited by lmstearn; Jun 27th, 2017 at 08:10 AM.
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