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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T22:56:24+00:00

I use the following script in Npackd to uninstall Dropbox. It works on XP

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I use the following script in Npackd to uninstall Dropbox. It works on XP and Vista, but fails on Windows 7/64. Instead of showing the taskbar (the one that is normally at the bottom of the screen) it shows a Windows Explorer window with the content of C:/. This is not Dropbox related as removing other packages with DLL based shell extensions also shows the same effect.

Uninstall.exe /S _?=%CD%
taskkill /f /fi "IMAGENAME eq explorer.exe"
del DropboxExt.13.dll
del DropboxExt64.13.dll
rem start explorer from the root directory so it does not lock this one
start "" /D\ explorer.exe

What is wrong with the script? How can it be modified to work correctly on Windows 7 too?

Thanks

EDIT: I am really tired of this problem. The following batch file works either started as a normal user or “As Administrator”:

taskkill /f /fi "IMAGENAME eq explorer.exe"
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1
pushd \
rem runas /trustlevel:0x20000 
start "" /D\ explorer.exe
popd

Here is the code that starts the .bat from my program (path=”Uninstall.bat”, only 2 new environment variables are defined):

QDir d = this->getDirectory();
QProcess p(0);
p.setProcessChannelMode(QProcess::MergedChannels);
QStringList params;
p.setWorkingDirectory(d.absolutePath());
QString exe = d.absolutePath() + "\\" + path;
for (int i = 0; i < env.count(); i += 2) {
    p.processEnvironment().insert(env.at(i), env.at(i + 1));
}
p.start(exe, params);

The corresponding code in Qt/qprocess_win.cpp:

DWORD dwCreationFlags = CREATE_NO_WINDOW;
dwCreationFlags |= CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT;
STARTUPINFOW startupInfo = { sizeof( STARTUPINFO ), 0, 0, 0,
                             (ulong)CW_USEDEFAULT, (ulong)CW_USEDEFAULT,
                             (ulong)CW_USEDEFAULT, (ulong)CW_USEDEFAULT,
                             0, 0, 0,
                             STARTF_USESTDHANDLES,
                             0, 0, 0,
                             stdinChannel.pipe[0], stdoutChannel.pipe[1], stderrChannel.pipe[1]
};
success = CreateProcess(0, (wchar_t*)args.utf16(),
                        0, 0, TRUE, dwCreationFlags,
                        environment.isEmpty() ? 0 : envlist.data(),
                        workingDirectory.isEmpty() ? 0 : (wchar_t*)QDir::toNativeSeparators(workingDirectory).utf16(),
                        &startupInfo, pid);

Why does the Explorer think there is already a taskbar?

EDIT2: I know what is wrong now. After the Explorer is killed a new is automatically started by an svchost.exe process with the following parameters: /factory,{682159d9-c321-47ca-b3f1-30e36b2ec8b9}. The GUID is for DesktopExplorerFactory. This is probably a crash-protection for a COM service. My calls to explorer.exe do not start a new Explorer as there is already one. After a minute or two this process will be automatically closed if no windows are opened. So I think Ben Voigt is right and “There’s really no good way to unload the shell completely without logging off all users.”

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    What is wrong with the script is quite simple: The shell is loaded into many many applications besides just Windows Explorer. Every application that uses the common open/save file dialogs hosts the shell.

    To address your immediate question of how to control the working directory of Windows Explorer without passing arguments that open a window, just set the working directory:

    pushd C:\
start explorer.exe
popd

    But this still will not let you reliably delete the extension. There’s really no good way to unload the shell completely without logging off all users.

    EDIT: Is your script running at the same integrity level as the original explorer.exe you killed? Same elevation level? The shell runs with medium (normal) integrity level and unelevated token, you need to match this.

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