Uninstall error if original install DVD is not in drive

Question

When trying to remove our application in Add/Remove Programs, the following error pops up, and the application fails to uninstall:

Error

'mFileBagIDE.dll' is not a valid short file name.

The curious thing is that you only get this error if the original installation DVD is not in the drive. If the DVD is in the drive, the uninstall works perfectly.

Here's the real kicker: we did not catch this bug until after our application was already widely deployed, and our clients' situations are such that it is likely many of them no longer have their original DVD. This means that the next version's installer (doing a windows installer major upgrade) will fail because it is unable to first remove the previous version.

So, my question is twofold:

• What did we do to create this problem so we can avoid it in future releases?
• Is there a way to tell our next windows installer to ignore this error and go ahead and remove the previous version?

Our current installer (the one that is causing problems) was generated using InstallAware. We're likely moving to WiX. But solutions in any platform (InstallAware, WiX, raw MSI tables) are appreciated!

UPDATE: I have the following row in both the InstallExecuteSequence and InstallUISequence tables in my MSI, which may very well be relevant, but I have no idea what the SRCDIREX property is, or where it is being set.

| Action        | Condition    |
|---------------|--------------|
| ResolveSource | NOT SRCDIREX |

Answer 1

have you tried to copy those files to %WinDir%/system32 folder?

EDIT: Make a setup to copy all the setup MSI package to the disk, and install it from the diskdrive. Remove every files uneeded to uninstaller. Adobe, HP and many other companys are doing that.

Answer 2

Probably one of the actions (either standard or custom) that references the original MSI was not conditioned to run on installation only (for example, ResolveSource should be conditioned as "Not INSTALLED"). You might be able to workaround this with a patch (an MSP file) that changes the condition on the relevant action.

Answer 3

I would start by determining which action is causing the error. Here's how I would do that:

• Install your app from the dvd
• copy the msi file to some local folder, let's say "c:\temp"
• Remove the dvd
• kick off the uninstall like this: "msiexec /x yourapp.msi /L*v c:\temp\uninst.log"

When the error comes up, the uninstall is effectively paused. You can then check the end of the log to see exactly where you are in the sequence. That should help you to debug.

If the answer really is ResolveSource, regular patching may not be an option. Heath Stewart mentions this in his blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2007/10/25/resolvesource-requires-source.aspx

"In general, do not schedule ResolveSource. If this runs when installing a patch, for example, the user will have to insert the original media whether they would otherwise need to or not."

If that's the position you find yourself in, you could create a transform that updates the condition on your ResolveSource action, and apply that to the cached copy of the msi file manually. It's a bit of a pain, but I'm pretty sure that would work.