Custom Action Script Fails for Uninstall

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1

(imported topic written by oldhickory91)

I am trying to uninstall several programs located on some of our remote client computers.

I came up with a simple Relevance and Action command. It seems to pass the debugger and

the clients report back as “completed”. However, when I look on their computers the software is

still showing up as being installed. Can someone please help me resolve this? Here’s the simple

commands I came up with:

Relevance:

exists key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MEMBER’S CHOICE AutoCare” of registry

Action:

//wait MsiExec.exe /X “C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\UNWISE.EXE C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\INSTALL.LOG” /qn /norestart

Thanks.

2

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Um, does your actionscript really have the //wait in it? The // will comment out that line.

3

(imported comment written by oldhickory91)

No, sorry I pasted that in inadvertently.

The script I posted says is “Running” but then fails to complete.

Relevance

exists key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MEMBER’S CHOICE AutoCare” of registry

Action Script

Script Type BigFix Action Script

//

wait \msiexec.exe /X “C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\UNWISE.EXE C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\INSTALL.LOG” /qn

4

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Is there a “” in front of msiexec? If so, that will make it not work any longer…

Ben

5

(imported comment written by oldhickory91)

Here’s the exxact script I launched and although it says it completed, it did not remove the software:

Relevance

exists key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MEMBER’S CHOICE AutoCare” of registry

Action Script

Script Type BigFix Action Script

wait msiexec.exe /X “C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\UNWISE.EXE C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\INSTALL.LOG” /qn

Can you please help me figure out what I’m doing wrong so that I can get some of this software uninstalled.

Thanks.

6

(imported comment written by bxk)

C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\UNWISE.EXE looks to be a Wise uninstaller EXE. Symantec’s documentation on the command switches for unwise.exe are located at http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/wisescript-command-line-options

My best guess is that you would want:

waithidden “C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\UNWISE.EXE” /S “C:\PROGRA~1\AutoCare\INSTALL.LOG”

If you are really trying to uninstall an application that was using using an MSI installer you’d want to use something like this, but replacing the MSI’s GUID in the example with this specific products GUID. The double } at the end of the GUID is to escape the } since otherwise action script would think it’s the closing }.

waithidden MsiExec.exe /X {"{E23D1D2C-1762-11D5-A8D2-00C04FA35721}}"} REBOOT=ReallySuppress /qn /norestart

A rather universal way to identify how to uninstall an application is the look in the UninstallString string key of the products, so in this case it would be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MEMBER’S CHOICE AutoCare\UninstallString. It’s the command Add/Remove programs would call to uninstall the application. While it most likely isn’t the silence execution, it’s a good starting point.

Brian

7

(imported comment written by oldhickory91)

Thanks for the reply. I could not find a specific GUID for this application. The only thing that came up in a registry search was the uninstall string that was mentioned in my previous post. I will try your suggestions and see if that works. Is there an automated way to use the .msi file (aside from GPO) to accomplish this?