Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects - how to provide restart prompt to MSI executed with Process.Start(), but without Repair option

Question

The problem is following: I have my custom uninstaller called before MSI uninstall. After shutting down my application properly it calls msiexec to use Windows Installer to uninstall MSI.

It's done by executing something like "msiexec /x{PRODUCT_CODE} /promptrestart".

And here is important thing - if the system is not restarted after uninstallation, and then the user installs the app again, some of its files will be deleted after next restart, so it's not acceptable. The restart is required, however, I need prompt, automatic and unconditional restart is evil and should never ever be used.

So, the invocation above displays STUPID "uninstall / repair" dialog. I do not want it. When I use "msiexec /x{PRODUCT_CODE} /qr /promptrestart" - then it uninstalls nicely, however it refuses propt for restart afterwards.

I have read about setting ARPNOREPAIR property.

But the idiots who gave that answer wouldn't care to say WHERE and HOW that property could be set. Even... Where the property belongs, it's the property of what? MSI file?

Then, maybe is it another way to achieve this, like invoke the prompt for restart from my code, but... how? The uninstaller should remove all my files until that moment. Maybe it's possible to execute a kind of script after the uninstallation process is complete?

(One more problem, the Windows Installer doesn't delete ALL files and directories created by my app. It would be nice if I could execute some code to clean up better.)

UPDATE I see 2 paths ahead: make a script to be run once the uninstallation ends (like using Registry or Task Scheduler or IDK), use Win32 API to modify MSI file, because AFAIK it's possible to change its properties that way.

Answer 1

Questions: Some questions first.

• Restart Manager: Are you familiar with the Restart Manager feature of MSI? Intended to help shut down and restart applications without the need for reboots. I would give it a quick skim? I think this is your real solution?

• Alternative MSI Tools: There are many tools available for creating MSI setups. This link also contains further links to a summary of the shortcomings of Visual Studio Installer Projects.
  • Using the free, open-source WiX toolset - for example - you can change MSI dialogs. Github sample. SO question 1. SO question 2. And here is the official WiX toolset site.
  • Adding my own answer from SO: Changing text color to Wix dialogs (please do skim)
  • I am not familiar with how to change dialogs in Visual Studio Installer Projects. Commercial products Advanced Installer and Installshield can certainly change dialogs.
• Services: What is the nature of the product you are installing? Does it has a lot of services for example? Services can be shut down and restarted via MSI tables if you use a proper tool to build the MSI.
• REINSTALLMODE: Do you use a custom REINSTALLMODE for your setup? (some settings can cause more reboot prompts).
• Custom Uninstaller: How do you invoke that custom uninstaller of yours? Manually or do you register an uninstall command line with Add / Remove Programs? (this latter approach is not recommended).

---

ARP Applet vs MSI Dialogs: The ARPNOREPAIR property is set in the MSI itself - in the property table. It affects only what is seen in Windows' Add / Remove Programs applet (ARP = Add / Remove Programs), and not what you see when your MSI is invoked via command line. Then you see the dialogs defined in that MSI itself (which can be changed - not entirely trivial to do).

ARP / Add Remove Programs Applet: A quick review of this applet below:

• Hold Windows Key and Tap R. Type: appwiz.cpl and press Enter. This opens the Add /Remove Programs Applet.

• Select the different package entries in the list to see different settings for ARPNOREPAIR, ARPNOMODIFY, etc...

  • If ARPNOREPAIR is set in the MSI's property table then the Repair entry is missing.
  • If ARPNOMODIFY is set in the MSI's property table then the Change entry is missing.
  • If ARPNOREMOVE is set in the MSI's property table then the Remove entry is missing.
• If the special ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT property is set, then the MSI will be missing from ARP altogether.

---

Links:

• In-use files not updated by MSI-installer (Visual Studio Installer project)

Answer 2

So, there is an "ugly hack" which solves the exact problem:

First - we need an executable, that isn't affected by the installer. This one is easy, we just copy that one installed exe to a TEMP directory and run it from there.

The next step is to that file must wait unit the uninstall phase is done. There are a couple of ways of doing so. You can observe the installer process, you can observe the file system if main program file is deleted. Considering the pace of common installer operations, polling once a second is a good enough option.

The next step is optional - you remove remaining files created by application, empty directories and such.

The next step is reboot itself, MessageBox.Show() from PresentationFramework is fine to ask user, when user answer OK or YES, then reboot itself can be performed in many ways, I use ExitWindowsEx() from user32.dll since it's probably what msiexec calls internally.

Here's example code:

if (MessageBox.Show(RestartPromptMsg, "", MessageBoxButton.OKCancel, MessageBoxImage.Exclamation) == MessageBoxResult.OK) {
    NativeMethods.ExitWindowsEx(
        NativeMethods.Flags.Reboot,
        NativeMethods.Reason.MajorApplication | NativeMethods.Reason.MinorInstallation | NativeMethods.Reason.FlagPlanned
    );
}

Of course some parameters could be passed to our special clean up executable, so it could do some extra things, like skip the restart prompt if it's not really required.

The last step is to delete our executable itself. It's easy, but it's tricky. Again I hope my example code would help:

var cleanUpTempPath = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), CleanUpExe);
File.Copy(CleanUpPath, cleanUpTempPath, overwrite: true);
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo {
    FileName = "cmd",
    Arguments = $"/c (\"{cleanUpTempPath}\" -purge \"{InstallerDir}\") & (del \"{cleanUpTempPath}\")",
    UseShellExecute = false,
    CreateNoWindow = true
});

We use cmd.exe special feature, the power of & and (). Commands separated with & gets executed when previous command exits. So when our clen up exe completes, it's gets deleted by the same cmd instance which called it. Remember to quote all paths, they can contain spaces. Remember to enclose a command with arguments in parentheses, because otherwise the & operator would be seen as a parameter to the previous command, not the cmd.exe.

I tested it in my big production application and it works as charm. The code examples don't work when just pasted, if you're looking for complete code, just google for it, there are plenty of working examples on pinvoke.net and StackOverflow.