As most of you probably noticed, when uninstalling an MSI package Windows will ask for the original .msi
file. Why is that?
I can only see disadvantages to that:
- not resilient to network changes.
- not resilient to local disk changes.
- unexpected by users.
- typically requires users to leave their desk and start a crusade to get the correct CD.
- kind of proves installations are not self-contained.
- promotes the use of unsafe tools such as msizap.
- which in turn promotes the "next time I'll just use a zip file" mentality.
Could someone shed some light on this?
Best Answer
UPDATE:
This new support tool(this tool is now also deprecated) can be tried on recent Windows versions if you have defunct MSI packages needing uninstall (rather than the outdated, deprecated, unsupportedmsizap.exe).Some have suggested to use the tool linked to here by saschabeaumont: Uninstall without an MSI file. If you try it and it works, please be sure to let us know. Feedback in that answer indicates that it works (I don't have any stuck setups to test with as of now).
Why are you asked for the original installation media?:
MSI design errors
,anti-virus quarantining
,system restore
,tinkering
,developer system in erroneous state from development work
,etc...
). See more info below - and links to force uninstall or unregistration of the product.MsiZap.exeto clean out such an install, but this tool is outdated, deprecated and unsupported. Don't use it - there are too many incompatibilities with newer Windows versions and you create new problems. Perhaps trythis support toolinstead (also deprecated). The only option I can suggest now is this answer from saschabeaumont. If you try this tool, please let us know if it works for you. If you want to figure out what could have caused the cached MSI to be missing, try to read section 12 here: Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec (in short potential causes range from interference with system restore, anti virus and cleanup scripts, to erronous manual tweaking, low disk space, power outages, developer box debugging errors, badly designed MSI files with duplicate package codes, failed patches, etc... Many theories, few certainties I am afraid).Related answer:
In addition to this answer, perhaps this article on various ways of uninstalling MSI packages is of interest. It is a rather popular article with a high number of views: