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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-12T15:52:13+00:00

I have a WiX installer project that utilises a custom dialog box to ask

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I have a WiX installer project that utilises a custom dialog box to ask for parameters to update a web.config file and run a database script on install. Everything works correctly and the application is installed and runs correctly.

However, the custom dialog box is also displayed when I uninstall the software and it certainly doesn’t need to be (as I’m not updating a web.config file).

Is there a way to suppress the custom dialog when the application is being uninstalled?

(I should also remove the sql procs I install, at uninstall time but that is outside of this issue).

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The solution to your question is to condition the custom action with the condition (Not REMOVE=”ALL”). This will make the action run on fresh install and maintenance install, but not on uninstall. If you don’t need to run on maintenance install, but only on a fresh install you can set the condition to be: (Not Installed AND Not(REMOVE=”ALL”)). Full list of MSI properties and brief descriptions here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370905(VS.85).aspx.

    The sequencing and custom action logic in MSI files is VERY complicated. It really pays off to avoid custom actions whenever you can.

    There is more – all MSI files have built-in support for silent installation. This means that the entire GUI sequence can be skipped, and the MSI file installed without user interaction. This is a crucial feature for corporate deployment via SMS / SCCM or other deployment mechanisms. Showing a custom dialog box when the setup is run in silent mode is a violation of this basic MSI feature. You can work around this by properly conditioning the display of the dialog based on the property UILevel: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372096(VS.85).aspx. Just to keep things interesting and confusing Microsoft has defined 4 levels of GUI during an installation ranging from completely silent, through various options such as progress bar only etc… See the link for details.

    I could add a lot of details here about MSI sequences, conditions, custom actions and similar, but it wouldn’t answer your question. Please add any follow-up questions.

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