So I botched an msi installer and deployed it after only testing installation, not uninstall (bad I know, added running of an exe after install, but forgot to specify that it should only occur on install not uninstall).
I found the Windows Installer Cleanup util, and the related msizap that I’ll use to automate the process. The problem now is that when a newer version is installed on top afterwards, the advertised shortcut still tries to do a repair (or whatever it’s actually doing trying to load the old version) and fails. Running the program directly from the file works fine, but I need to remove the advertised shortcuts in an automated way. It doesn’t need to be incredibly robust, fairly small private beta install-base right now, so can assume that shortcuts are in the originally installed locations of desktop and start menu.
Are there any special concerns I need to take into account for an advertised shortcut or can I just treat it as any other file and just remove it?
AFAIK adverited shortcuts are responsible for doing the setup.
Those are special lnk files that have point to the installer with a spicel param that will preform the setup when they are activated (you can see the info with notepad or hex editor).
never the less, MSI zap should have remove all trace of the setup.
Does the setup runs if you do a zap then press the shortcut? or you get an error?