Just an appeal to all the softie's who write auto-installer's for software packages:

 

'Rant on' -

 

Thank you for making the installation of your greatfully received enhancements to our wonderful hobby BUT PLEASE if you must include a uninstaller can you make it name specific... NOT the general uninstal.

 

I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to uninstal an add-on from several months ago I no longer wish to use, only to have it uninstal the LAST ITEM I installed. If you cannot make it specific to YOUR add-on, please save yourself the bother and don't include one....

 

'Rant off' - deep breath, count to three, give up and have a beer (or three..) ;-)

Clicking 'uninstall' in the programs list. Totally different uninstaller pops up. Nooooooooo, not that one!

I hear you.

Good idea, that makes perfect sense.

This is a Windows / installer error when it does that, not something developers can control... No one writes an uninstaller that goes and uninstalls a different product than their own. Windows and the installer program (InstallShield usually) have a complex system of references for triggering the correct uninstall routine - sometimes it gets corrupted. I get this type of ticket at least once a month at PMDG. No fix that I'm aware of unfortunately - we have manual uninstall procedures I send people when it happens...

 

EDIT:

Thinking about this some more - there actually is another form of this that results from companies putting an "uninstall.exe" file for their addon right in the FSX root folder. When multiple addons do this, the most recent one installed has overwritten the uninstall.exe file and since all their links point to FSX\Uninstall.exe, it runs the one last installed regardless of which addon's link you click - this *is* a developer error and I agree that it's very bad practice. Normally the uninstall data and exe are supposed to go in a folder such as C:\Program Files\InstallShield Uninstall Information\ where they're contained in a subfolder designated by a unique code.

uninstall file for their addon right in the FSX root folder

 

Those are what I despise! Its also hard to determine what they are for. They are labeled "Uninstaller" ya..... for what???

I think this problem may be with the popular Clickteam installers.

 

By default this program creates an uninstall.exe which is put into the FSX root folder. The person packaging the installer needs to make sure they give this uninstaller a unique name and changes it from uninstall.exe.

 

This program can also stuff up ones FSX registry entries if one is not careful and ticks the wrong box (as ORBX well know, they had to trash a bunch of DVDs once a couple of years ago because the installer was doing this).

I suppose if a person first re-installed the addon you wish to remove, then running the uninstaller would remove the correct bits & pieces, but yeah. MS was even sort of guilty of this with FS9 and it's accompanying "UNINSTAL.EXE" which on at least one of my FS9 installs was overwritten by something else I installed later. Doesn't really matter to me though, I usually fire the installers/.zip files into a temp folder or a dummy FS folder and note what got placed where, then I surgically remove whatever it is manually or with a batch file rather than using the uninstallers.

 

Jim

I agree that the filename "uninstaller.exe" or "uninstall.exe" should be renamed.

 

Here is a part-suggestion. Whenever you install something, you can look for the uninstall file and you can rename it to something more meaningful. Each time you install something, you find the uninstaller and rename it appropriately. Now whenever you look in the folder, you will see the (renamed) uninstallers and know which is which.

 

HOWEVER, I said this was only a PART-suggestion. This will only work if the renamed uninstaller file knows which bits and pieces you want removed (ie, if it knows which program or software it is supposed to be uninstalling). Renaming the file merely changes the name, but the uninstall program may still uninstall the wrong software. If the uninstaller uses a text based config file (eg a .cfg or maybe .xml) file and you can find that file, then you can also rename that file appropriately. Whenever you do actually want to uninstall something, you would need to remember to rename the uninstaller AND its associated .cfg or .xml file back to the correct names, and, hopefully, it might all work.

 

I'm not saying this is a good suggestion ... in fact, it's probably not even going to work. Nonetheless, it could be worth a try.

 

Of course the best solution would be if the software writers, as per your appeal, did their jobs properly and correctly managed the files and folders they put on to your system.

The uninstaller name is dependent on which software has been used to create the installer. For example, Inno setup (which is what we at FSDT use) creates an uninsNNN.exe and uninsNNN.dat file, with NNN automatically going from 0 to 999, this would solve the issue of potentially overwriting previous uninstallers, since the installer never overwrites but always creates a new uninsNNN.exe with the next available number.

 

Selecting the location for the uninstaller, might be tricky.

 

Some versions of installshield by default put their Uninstaller.exe in the Windows %TEMP% folder but, if the user runs a temporary files cleanup, the uninstaller would be lost so, the App (FSX in this case) folder it's a safer place. Putting the uninstaller in an FSX subfolder belonging to the addon might be tricky too, because that folder is going to be removed too when uninstalling, so you would likely left with an empty subfolder with just the uninstaller inside, because the uninstaller couldn't remove the folder where it was running from. So, really, the FSX root folder is the only place you might be reasonably sure the uninstaller wouldn't be removed, and were the uninstaller has also the ability to remove any subfolders *below* itself.

 

Another possible location could be something inside your Home folder, but then people might wonder why Uninstaller.exe files appear alongside their Documents, Pictures, etc. At least, under the FSX root folder, you know the uninstaller belongs to an FSX addon.

 

In any case, it's usually not a problem not being able to immediately identify what program a certain Uninstaller.exe relates to, if you run the Uninstaller from the Add/Remove programs section of the Control panel, instead of running the Uninstaller directly, the Windows registry keeps the associations between the program and its uninstaller so, as long as uninstallers are not renamed/removed manually, and the installer works like Innosetup, auto-renaming new uninstallers with a number in their name, so they are not accidentally overwritten, everything will work normally.

 

Note that, Inno setup also allows to specify a custom icon, which is used by the uninstaller too so, for example, all the uninsNNN.exe files in the FSX root folder, will show a custom icon, which could be useful to identify at least who made the installer, and if there's a custom icon for each product, even the product, without having to use a custom filename at all.