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Re: SB7 Uninstall Breaks Symlink to Program Files

Hi Wayne,

Thanks so much for sharing this information. I Googled and found some similar reports where the symlink was suddenly broken.

I have added the information you reported to our support system so we are prepared if this comes up again in the future.

Thanks again!

Friedrich

Re: SB7 Uninstall Breaks Symlink to Program Files

Hi Friedrich,

I'm sure it does not have anything to do with SB. As I said, this does not happen when I run an uninstaller directly from its executable in Windows Explorer.

I'm just reporting what happens when I run an SB-generated uninstaller from the Control Panel, so it's something that affects SB. You can do or not do whatever you wish with that information.

Wayne

Re: SB7 Uninstall Breaks Symlink to Program Files

Wayne,

The uninstall just removes what is in the uninstall .log. Nothing more or less.

We have not opened a ticket because this has nothing to to with SetupBuilder.

Friedrich

SB7 Uninstall Breaks Symlink to Program Files

Hi, I hesitated to report this, hoping it was a coincidence the first time, but it just happened again today.

I have the Program Files folder of my dev machine residing on Drive E: and a symbolic link to redirect C:\Program Files to E:\Program Files.

The first time this happened was after receiving a C7 update that required an uninstall. After the uninstall, I installed the C7 update, launched C7 and all seemed well.

But it wasn't. I couldn't launch any other apps at all. Browsing the Program Files folder, I found that Clarion 7 was the only program group in Program Files! After taking a few deep breaths, I double-checked and found that all the rest were still there, but on Drive E:, and Clarion 7 had installed in a new C:\Program Files.

The symlink had been broken.

Now, the only way to create a symlink on that folder is to boot into Safe Mode with a Command Prompt but first I had to uninstall the new Clarion 7 and delete the new, unwelcome C:\Program Files.

Since then I have avoided uninstalling Clarion before installing a CSP update.

I thought this was isolated because I test all my installs that I build with SB7 many times and run almost as many uninstalls with no issue at all.

Until today, when I actually ran an uninstall from the Control Panel instead of directly launching the Uninst executable, as I usually do. Suddenly, I couldn't re-launch SB7, or any other application. This time, it wasn't quite so frightening, but it's still a bit of a pain to correct.

I'm going to jump to conclusions and say that this only happens when the uninstaller is run from "Programs and Features" in the Control Panel. As you can imagine, I'm not anxious to do a lot of testing of this in order to nail down the precise conditions under which it happens.

At least, now that I know it can be reproduced, and it's not a coincidence, I thought you should know about it.

Wayne