Uninstall ADX vs. unconfigured Outlook

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Uninstall ADX vs. unconfigured Outlook
 
Søren Hjarlvig




Posts: 34
 Joined: 2007-02-22
Hi,

I'm trying to do an automatic, unattended, uninstall of an Outlook addin.
The problem is that if Outlook is not configured, Outlook will start the configuration wizard during uninstall. This is hanging the uninstall process until the user cancels the wizard.
If the uninstall is run by the system account Outlook shows an error message you must OK before continuing.

I know that the Custom Action -> Uninstall -> adxloader.dll, EntryPoint = DllUnregister is responsible for this. Since removing this action "solves" the problem.

I'm using adxloader.dll version 3.3.1866.0, Outlook 2003 SP2, Windows XP SP2 and Visual Studio 2005 to generate the installer msi.

I'm about to deploy on 3000+ workstations so I need to be sure that unattended uninstallation is possible even if Outlook is not configured.

Thank you and best regards

Søren Hjarlvig
Posted 01 Mar, 2008 19:48:08 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
 Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Søren.

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean. What the error message do you get?
Posted 03 Mar, 2008 09:19:05 Top
Søren Hjarlvig




Posts: 34
 Joined: 2007-02-22
Thanks for your reply.
I will try to explain better:

I'm installing and uninstalling using the system account.

Install:
msiexec /i myprojectSetup.msi /qn

Uninstall:
msiexec /uninstall myprojectSetup.msi /qn

Install works fine.

But when I try to uninstall, there is first a Windows installer window saying "Preparing to install..." and then an error message:

Microsoft Office Outlook
The operation failed due to an installation problem. Restart Outlook and try again. If the problem persists, please reinstall.

When I click "OK" uninstalling continues without other errors.

From reading the forums I understand that adxloader.dll launches Outlook when uninstalling. I think the problem is that Outlook has never been run before using the system account, so when Outlook starts it tries to setup a new user profile and for some reason this fails.

I have also tried to uninstall using a normal account where Outlook is not configured, in this case Outlook will start the configuration wizard during uninstall.

I need to be able to uninstall without user interaction using the system account.

Best regards

Søren

Posted 03 Mar, 2008 15:09:35 Top
Søren Hjarlvig




Posts: 34
 Joined: 2007-02-22
Is there really no solution for this? It seems like a major limitation if it is impossible to do automatic install/uninstall on clients using tools like SMS.

Best regards

Søren
Posted 05 Mar, 2008 16:35:36 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
 Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Søren.

If you set the Temporary property of your command bars to True, Add-in Express doens't create an instance of Outlook when the add-in is uninstalled. But you need to update the Add-in Express and loader up to 3.8.1886.
Posted 06 Mar, 2008 08:47:30 Top
Søren Hjarlvig




Posts: 34
 Joined: 2007-02-22
Upgrading to 3.8.1886 fixed the problem, since my command bars were already temporary.

Thank you for excellent support.

Best regards

Søren
Posted 08 Mar, 2008 18:22:47 Top