[wix-users] Way to delete all files during uninstallation of product from installation path

[Christopher Painter]

The files are being left their by design as they are user data.  MSI only uninstalls what it knows about.

If the files are in a fixed, known named set of subdirectories you can use the RemoveFile element to wildcard delete the contents of each of those folders.

http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/wix/removefile.html

If they are in a non-fixed, unkown named set of subdirectories you can use the RemoveFilesEx element found in the Util extension.

http://www.joyofsetup.com/2011/01/21/tactical-directory-nukes/
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/util/removefolderex.html

Another note,  if the application is creating it's temp files, log files and so on under ProgramFiles  then this is probably a design flaw.  If you move them to a more suitable location such as CommonAppData and TEMP folders   then you won't see anything extra in ProgramFiles and the cleanup requirement will likely go away.


________________________________
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of Hanumanthaiah, ShashikalaX via wix-users <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2019 5:26 AM
To: wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
Cc: Hanumanthaiah, ShashikalaX
Subject: [wix-users] Way to delete all files during uninstallation of product from installation path

Hi,

     I have created a wix installer for one of our products. I had a few observations during uninstallation step.
     I see that the files created by tool during runtime and which are not installed during the installation process remain intact.
     I cross verified it by creating a few temp files and folders and I see they are not getting deleted. So from the observations it looks like
     Wix will keep a tab of files copied during installation and only those files and folders are getting deleted.  I would like to know if there
    Is a  way to do a clean uninstall i.e deleting all entries of the product from installation path.

Thanks and Regards,
shashikala


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