Question

I have a Visual Studio setup project.
Upon installation, it creates an uninstall batch file in the application folder. IF the user wants to uninstall the product, he can go to “Add/Remove Programs”, or he can just double-click the uninstall.cmd. The contents are:

%windir%\system32\msiexec /x {CC3EB7BF-DD82-48B9-8EC5-1B0B62B6D285}

The GUID there is the ProductCode from the Setup Project in Visual Studio.

But, in order for upgrades to work properly, I have to increment the Version number, every time I produce a new MSI. And, if I increment the Version number, then I also have to generate a new Guid for the ProductCode. Which means the static uninstall.cmd file needs to change.

How can I dynamically generate a batch file that contains the ProductCode for the, at build time?

Answer 1

This is the script I wrote that creates an uninstall.cmd. It runs as a custom action during installation.

var fso, ts;
var ForWriting= 2;
fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");

var parameters = Session.Property("CustomActionData").split("|"); 
var targetDir = parameters[0];
var productCode = parameters[1];

ts = fso.OpenTextFile(targetDir + "uninstall.cmd", ForWriting, true);

ts.WriteLine("@echo off");
ts.WriteLine("goto START");
ts.WriteLine("=======================================================");
ts.WriteBlankLines(1);
ts.WriteLine(" Uninstall.cmd");
ts.WriteBlankLines(1);
ts.WriteLine("=======================================================");
ts.WriteBlankLines(1);
ts.WriteLine(":START");
ts.WriteLine("@REM The uuid is the 'ProductCode' in the Visual Studio setup project");
ts.WriteLine("%windir%\\system32\\msiexec /x " + productCode);
ts.WriteBlankLines(1);
ts.Close();

The result is a cmd file that always has the current ProductCode in it.

The downside of this is that ?the script that creates the uninstall.cmd remains in the installation directory. Not a huge problem but I don’t like the rubbish in the install directory. I haven’t yet tried to make the “createInstaller.js” self-deleting. That might work.

EDIT: yes, making the createInstaller.js self-deleting works fine.

I’m going to accept my own answer!