Comments on DeploymentEngineering.com - The Blog: InstallAware Uninstall Problem

Hi Chris, Oh, I'm not distancing from Microsoft a...

2009-10-20T17:13:20.469-05:00

Hi Chris,

Oh, I'm not distancing from Microsoft at all. I'm just saying they purchased an InstallAware setup compiler and they can do with it as they please. We don't have the capability to monitor what our customers do with our setups :)

I think you really need to take a look at InstallAware so you understand that what's going on here has nothing to do with LaunchConditions. I don't blame you at all for not understanding, if anything, this proves that InstallAware is revolutionary in its approach to building MSI files.

In fact, anybody reading this blog and wanting to check out just how revolutionary InstallAware is, send sales at installaware.com an email with the subject "Painter License" and we'll send out a complimentary Developer license your way. Till this Friday only :)

Cheers,
Sinan

I'm sorry, I don't recal you ever giving me a free...

2009-10-20T16:26:24.472-05:00

I'm sorry, I don't recal you ever giving me a free copy of InstallAware.

I acknowledged that I'm not an OEM partner and don't have access to the actual installer, but your very long windows explanation sounds a lot like "or Installed" only with reinventing LaunchConditions on top.

It's interesting that you now distance yourself from Microsoft when in your very own PR release you use it as an example of success. What's that saying about eating cake and still having it?

Hi Chris, I was surprised that millions of people...

2009-10-20T15:44:38.576-05:00

Hi Chris,

I was surprised that millions of people are having problems uninstalling the activation assistant, so I Google'd it. The error message appears to be:

"Microsoft Office 2007 must be installed before Microsoft Activation Assistant can be installed."

Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but if you knew anything at all about InstallAware (i.e. if you had even bothered to install one of those free copies I've given you), you'd know that this has to do with the way the setup script is coded by the setup engineer, and has absolutely nothing to do with "LaunchConditions".

InstallAware, being the most flexible software installer on the market, lets people do things not thought possible before. This means that a developer can intentionally prevent uninstallation for any reason. In this case, obviously, it looks like the Microsoft developer erroneously enforced the install-time requirement globally (i.e. even at uninstall time).

They can certainly do that, why they would is of course beyond me. But I wouldn't blame InstallAware for that, any more than I'd blame Microsoft because people are coding spyware and malware using their Visual C++ compilers, for instance.

Anyways, thanks again for giving us the coverage! Best wishes from InstallAware,

Sinan

It's hard to say without more information but the ...

2009-10-20T14:22:24.391-05:00

It's hard to say without more information but the point is if InstallAware is going to take credit for being the technology used to preinstall on millions of machines, shouldn't it also take the blame for not being able to uninstall also?

Curious, is the issue then the fault of the tool (...

2009-10-20T13:51:39.940-05:00

Curious, is the issue then the fault of the tool (i.e. InstallAware) or whoever wrote the installer (i.e. engineer at Microsoft)?