MSIUninstaller.exe (Console Application)

• Download VS 2005 solution - 24.93 KB
• Download demo project - 6.26 KB

Introduction

I have a problem where I periodically have to rollback many machines on the network to an older version of our software (distributed as MSI package).
Thus I made a simple console application that can run from a BAT script or similar. It allows me to uninstall MSI packages on a computer, even when I don't know exactly which version is currently installed on the machine. And further, if the correct (old version) is already installed, I can skip the uninstallation of the package.

Using the Code

The MSIUninstaller.exe calls the Microsoft MsiExec.exe to handle the actual uninstallation of the MSI package.
It looks up all the installed packages in the registry database under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
Then it loops through them to find the packages, which match the specific input parameters and then they are uninstalled.
The program allows you to specify input parameters like quiet, log and wild cards.

This function shows the primary functionality of the program:

Sub Process(ByVal DisplayName As String, ByVal bUninstall As Boolean, _
ByVal bDisplay As Boolean, ByVal bQuiet As Boolean, ByVal bLog As Boolean, _
ByVal strSkip As String)

    ' Retrieve all the subkeys for the specified key.
    Dim names As String() = m_rKey.GetSubKeyNames
    Dim version As String = ""
    Dim publisher As String = ""
    Dim dispName As String = ""
    Dim iFound As Integer

    For Each s As String In names
        dispName = GetKeyValue(s, "DisplayName")
        If dispName <> "" Then
            If WildCardCompare(dispName, DisplayName) Then
                version = GetKeyValue(s, "DisplayVersion")
                publisher = GetKeyValue(s, "Publisher")
                If strSkip <> "none" And WildCardCompare(version, strSkip) Then
                    Continue For
                End If
                Dim cmd As String = Environment.SystemDirectory.ToString + _
                "\MsiExec.exe /x " + s
                If bQuiet Then
                    cmd += " /qn"
                End If
                If bLog Then
                    cmd += " /lie+c:\MSIUninstaller.log.txt"
                End If
                If Not bDisplay Then
                    Console.WriteLine("Publisher       = " + publisher)
                    Console.WriteLine("DisplayName     = " + dispName)
                    Console.WriteLine("version         = " + version)
                    Console.WriteLine("GUID            = " + s)
                    Console.WriteLine("EsitmatedSize   = " + (CDbl(GetKeyValue_
        (s, "EstimatedSize")) / 1024).ToString("N2") + " Mb")
                    Dim dato As String = GetKeyValue(s, "InstallDate")
                    dato = dato.Substring(6) + "-" + dato.Substring(4, 2) + _
                    "-" + dato.Substring(0, 4)
                    Console.WriteLine("InstallDate     = " + CDate(dato).ToString_
                        ("dd-MMM-yyy"))
                    Console.WriteLine("InstallSource   = " + GetKeyValue_
                    (s, "InstallSource") + vbLf)
                End If
                If bUninstall Then
                    Shell(cmd)
                End If
                iFound += 1
            End If
        End If
    Next s
    If Not bQuiet And iFound = 0 Then
        Console.WriteLine(DisplayName + " was not found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\_
    Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall _
    on this computer" + vbLf)
    End If
End Sub

Private Function GetKeyValue(ByVal keyName As String, ByVal valueName As String) _
As String
    Dim obj As Object = m_rKey.OpenSubKey(keyName).GetValue(valueName)
    If Not obj Is Nothing Then
        Return obj
    Else
        Return ""
    End If
End Function

Private Function WildCardCompare(ByVal strInput As String, _
ByVal strWildCard As String) As Boolean
    strWildCard = "^" + Regex.Escape_
(strWildCard).Replace("\*", ".*").Replace("\?", ".") + "$"
    Return Regex.IsMatch(strInput, strWildCard, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
End Function

History

• 7^th August, 2008: Initial post