Installshield Silent Uninstall not working at Command Line

Dave picture Dave · Jul 10, 2012 · Viewed 77.4k times · Source

We have an older app from 2006 we'd like to uninstall at the command line using group policy, but I can't get a silent uninstall to work.

This works. Of course I need to click Next to uninstall:

 "C:\App\Setup.exe" /uninst

But this does not. I see an hourglass for a couple seconds but the app is not uninstalled.

 "C:\App\Setup.exe" /uninst /s

I also unsuccessfully tried some VBScripts. They find the app listed but the uninstall fails. I'm not too familiar with how this process is supposed to work.

Answer

stephane picture stephane · Jul 11, 2012

You need to create first an ISS response file to silently remove your application,

  1. Create response file : C:\App\Setup.exe /r /f1c:\app\uninstall1.iss you will be asked to uninstall, .... and perhaps reply the others windows. Then your application would be uninstalled and you get a new response file c:\app\uninstall1.iss

  2. Next, if you want to remove silently this application on another computer : launch : C:\App\Setup.exe" /s /f1c:\app\uninstall1.iss

For more information see:

http://www.itninja.com/blog/view/installshield-setup-silent-installation-switches

Best Regards, Stéphane