[wix-users] Uninstallation of another msi during uninstallation

[Alon Dean]

At work, we implemented an auto update mechanism (squirrel.windows) for our
application.

some intro:
1. We created a hybrid msi installation which does some registry and files
deployment stuff, then runs the squirrel's setup (CA which runs the
embedded setup.exe)
2. I disabled squirrel's ability to create/update the registry that
displays an entry in the control panel, so that only the msi's entry will
exist.
2. Only the 'main' msi has the CA and the data to properly uninstall the
squirrel's installation.
3. I know, this is a bad solution to a very complicated problem.

So the client gets a (custom made per account) msi for the initial install,
which results in a control panel entry with the correct version number.
However, once an update is applied, since it doesn't involve an msi file,
the version at the control panel isn't being updated.
So I'm trying to find a solution to this version number update..
I thought of 3 possible solutions, unfortunately, the 3 of those can update
the version number at the control panel but none of these can remove the
original msi for a complete uninstallation:
1. patches, but I have no knowledge of the msi the client has installed,
and afaik, a patch is created from a source and target msi files.
2. minor update. but it overrides the original msi with the ability to
uninstall
3. set artpsystemcomponent to the original msi to hide it from the user and
install 'mini msi' with the correct version number, after each update. but
again, when the user will trigger uninstall (of the mini msi), the
original msi won't be removed.

I'm not happy about the current situation but I still need to fix for it...
Hope I made myself clear, any advice will be greatly appreciated
Thanks!

On Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 12:11 AM Rob Mensching <rob at firegiant.com> wrote:

> 2. Oh sorry, misread. Correct, that’s not possible. Burn can do this with
> related bundles (add-ons and patches).
>
>
>
> What’s your use case for #2? Just curious.
>
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> I provide short answers on wix-users. Full commercial support is offered
> by FireGiant at http://www.firegiant.com/services
>
>
>
> *From:* Alon Dean <alondean at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 14, 2021 12:09 PM
> *To:* Rob Mensching <rob at firegiant.com>
> *Cc:* WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [wix-users] Uninstallation of another msi during
> uninstallation
>
>
>
> Thank you for the response!
> 1. OK, thanks
> 2. From what I read, the upgrade element of msi A can uninstall other msi
> (B) *during A's installation. *I want to uninstall B in the process of *uninstalling
> A*.
> If that's possible then I missed how an upgrade element can accomplish
> this, can you please explain?
>
>
>
> Thanks again
>