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Customizing Your Uninstallerby Robert DickauPrincipal Technical Training Writer, Acresso Software

Customizing Your UninstallerIntroduct ionAs important as properly designing your installer is designing your uninstaller. Most simple projects will not require much uninstaller customizat ion. However, if you are installing mult iple projects, using merge modules, or installing server applicat ions, you may wish to add addit ional funct ionality to your uninstaller.

This white paper describes how to build customized uninstallers to control the removal of products and features.

Uninstallat ionIn InstallAnywhere, you can customize the uninstaller in the same way you can customize the installer. In part icular, you use the Pre-Uninstall and Post-Uninstall tasks to modify the panels and act ions performed during uninstallat ion.

Start ing with InstallAnywhere 2009, you can set the variable $SKIP_UNINSTALL$ to true to prevent the Uninstall step from being performed.

The uninstaller is similar to the installer. It is a collect ion of panels, consoles, and act ions. It keeps track of what the installer has done, and contains a record of every act ion run during install t ime. All Pre-Uninstall panels, act ions, and consoles run first; then the uninstall funct ionality of act ions in the Install task are called; and last ly the Post-Uninstall act ions are run. In addit ion, the product informat ion (product, feature, and component informat ion) is removed from the InstallAnywhere registry.

Note: You can disable integrat ion with the InstallAnywhere registry by deselect ing the Do not update the product registry check box in the Project > Info task.

If your installer supports console mode, you should add console equivalents to the graphical panels displayed during uninstallat ion.

You can customize the appearance, locat ion, and some of the behavior of the uninstaller using its customizer in the Install task.

By default, the uninstaller executable is called Uninstall_ProductName, and is located in an Uninstall_ProductName subdirectory of the installat ion locat ion $USER_INSTALL_DIR$.

Feature-Level Uninstallat ionEach installer project has one uninstaller. All features are registered with the uninstaller through a local registry. If the Choose Feature panel is included in the uninstaller, the user will be offered the opt ion to uninstall only certain features.

There are two opt ions for controlling the behavior of a feature-level uninstall. The default behavior, illustrated in the following figure, is that installed features appear checked at uninstall t ime, and that clearing a feature’s check box causes it to be uninstalled.

In the sett ings for the Choose Features to Uninstall panel, you can specify to use the opposite behavior, that installed features are displayed un-selected, and select ing a feature causes it to be uninstalled.

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Learn More about InstallAnywhereIf you wish to learn more about the capabilit ies of InstallAnywhere and download a free evaluat ion, please visit the Acresso Web site at www.acresso.com/installanywhere

Customizing Your Uninstaller

3Acresso Software: InstallAnywhere White Paper Series

A feature-level uninstallat ion enables end users to choose specific features to uninstall. If an end user opts to uninstall one feature that has a shared component with a feature they were not planning to uninstall, the uninstaller recognizes this conflict and does not uninstall the shared component.

Uninstaller Integrat ion with the Target SystemInstallAnywhere automat ically creates an uninstaller for the project, which can be launched manually. The InstallAnywhere uninstaller removes all files and act ions that occur during the Install task of the installat ion. Act ions added in other phases of the installat ion cannot be removed using the uninstaller, and should be accounted for in the install phase.

On Windows plat forms, InstallAnywhere automat ically creates an Add or Remove Programs entry.

If the user clicks the “Click here for support informat ion” link in the Add or Remove Programs entry, the following Support Info panel is displayed.

The details are populated based on the sett ings you specify in the Project > Descript ion task.

Similarly, you can opt ionally specify to integrate your product informat ion with the RPM database on a Linux user’s system. You can specify the integrat ion in the Project > Plat forms > UNIX task.

If you select to enable RPM registrat ion, the Configure button enables you to specify the informat ion to store in the RPM database.

Likewise, InstallAnywhere 2008 Value Pack 1 introduced support for integrat ion with the SWVPD registry on AIX target systems, and RAIR support on System i (i5/OS) systems.

SummaryThis white paper discussed how to build customized uninstallers to control the removal of products and features. It also highlighted how InstallAnywhere makes it easy for developers to design the right uninstaller.

Begin a Free Evaluat ion of InstallAnywhereYou can download a free trial version of InstallAnywhere from the Acresso Software Web site at: www.acresso.com/installanywhere/eval.

Learn More Best Pract ices for Building Quality Installat ionsJoin an InstallAnywhere training class – visit www.acresso.com/training for available classes.

Also, if you have a crit ical installat ion project but are short on developer bandwidth or expert ise, Acresso’s Professional Services team can help. Learn more at: www.acresso.com/services/consult ing/software-installat ions.htm

© 2009 Acresso Software Inc. and/or InstallShield Co. Inc. All other brand and product names ment ioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respect ive owners. IA_WP_Uninstall_Jun09

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