You may be thinking of the Windows Installer file versioning rules, which are used to determine whether or not a file is overwritten during installation of a product or product update. In the case of versioned files such as an EXE, if the version number of the existing file is higher than the version number of the file being installed, the file is not overwritten. In the case of non-versioned files, Windows Installer uses the file's creation date and modified date to determine if the file has been updated since it was installed, in which case it does not overwrite the file.
When it comes to uninstalling a product, though, I believe all files that were installed with the product are removed when the product is uninstalled unless (a) the file (or more correctly, the component of which the file is a part) is marked as permanent, or if the file is marked as shared and another product's installation still maintains a reference to the same file. There are a couple of other reasons a file might be left stranded after an uninstall of the product. There's some reference information on this at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa371214(VS.85).aspx. -Rick Borup -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Schummer Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NF] Installshield 2009 -- uninstall info Hey Rick, Isn't it possible Windows Installer is determining the file version is different from what was installed and not uninstalling it? Rick White Light Computing, Inc. www.whitelightcomputing.com www.swfox.net www.rickschummer.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Borup Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 06:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NF] Installshield 2009 -- uninstall info Actually it's the other way around, all files that were installed by the installer should get uninstalled unless they're marked as Permanent or Shared. In InstallShield Express 2009, go to the Files pane, right click on a file in the lower right quadrant, choose Properties, select the Advanced tab, and see if the Permanent and/or Shared check boxes are marked. If so, that's the reason they're not getting uninstalled. Whether or not you can safely change these settings depends of course on the app and which files we're talking about. For example, you probably would not want to uninstall the user's database files that they may have updated. -Rick [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/000901c9a908$4ce26df0$e6a749...@com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
