Wix Not Removing Files on Uninstall

Question

I've seen others' questions on this matter, but I can't make it work for me. I'm trying to get used to Wix so we can migrate our vdproj's (I feel like we've taken 1 step forward and 4 steps back here...the most basic of things have become completely non-trivial with Wix...but I do see value in having a fully fledged declarative markup for building installers).

I have the following wxs in a wixproj in SharpDevelop.

Install works. Uninstall does nothing and leaves the install folder and dll in place. What's the problem?

Files.wxs:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Fragment>
        <DirectoryRef Id="TARGETDIR">
            <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
                <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="Client">
                    <Component Id="InteropDll" Guid="AD09F8B9-80A0-46E6-9E36-9618E2023D66" DiskId="1">
                        <File Id="Interop.dll" Name="Interop.dll" Source="..\Interop\bin\$(var.Configuration)\Interop.dll" KeyPath="yes" />
                        <RemoveFile Id="RemoveInterop.dll" Name="Interop.dll" On="uninstall" />
                    </Component>
                </Directory>
            </Directory>
        </DirectoryRef>
    </Fragment>
</Wix>

Setup.wxs:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Product Id="*"
        Name="Client Setup"
        Language="1033"
        Version="1.0.0.0"
        UpgradeCode="4A88A3AD-7CB6-46FB-B2FD-F4EADE0218F8"
        Manufacturer="Client Setup">
        <Package Description="#Description"
            Comments="Comments"
            InstallerVersion="200"
            Compressed="yes"/>
        <!--
            Source media for the installation. 
            Specifies a single cab file to be embedded in the installer's .msi. 
        -->
        <Media Id="1" Cabinet="contents.cab" EmbedCab="yes" CompressionLevel="high"/>

        <!-- Installation directory and files are defined in Files.wxs -->
        <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir"/>

        <Feature Id="Complete"
                 Title="Client Setup"
                 Description="Client Setup"
                 Level="1">
            <ComponentRef Id="InteropDll" />
        </Feature>

        <!-- 
            Using the Wix UI library

            WixUI_InstallDir does not allow the user to choose 
            features but adds a dialog to let the user choose a 
            directory where the product will be installed
        -->
        <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR">INSTALLDIR</Property>

        <UI Id="WixUI_InstallDir">
            <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Normal" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="8" />
            <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Bigger" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="12" />
            <TextStyle Id="WixUI_Font_Title" FaceName="Tahoma" Size="9" Bold="yes" />

            <Property Id="DefaultUIFont" Value="WixUI_Font_Normal" />
            <Property Id="WixUI_Mode" Value="InstallDir" />

            <DialogRef Id="BrowseDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="DiskCostDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="ErrorDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="FatalError" />
            <DialogRef Id="FilesInUse" />
            <DialogRef Id="MsiRMFilesInUse" />
            <DialogRef Id="PrepareDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="ProgressDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="ResumeDlg" />
            <DialogRef Id="UserExit" />

            <Publish Dialog="BrowseDlg" Control="OK" Event="DoAction" Value="WixUIValidatePath" Order="3">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="BrowseDlg" Control="OK" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="InvalidDirDlg" Order="4"><![CDATA[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID<>"1"]]></Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="ExitDialog" Control="Finish" Event="EndDialog" Value="Return" Order="999">1</Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="InstallDirDlg">NOT Installed</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg">Installed AND PATCH</Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="WelcomeDlg">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="SetTargetPath" Value="[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR]" Order="1">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="DoAction" Value="WixUIValidatePath" Order="2">NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="InvalidDirDlg" Order="3"><![CDATA[NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH AND WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID<>"1"]]></Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg" Order="4">WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH OR WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID="1"</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="ChangeFolder" Property="_BrowseProperty" Value="[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR]" Order="1">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="ChangeFolder" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="InstallDirDlg" Order="1">NOT Installed</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Order="2">Installed AND NOT PATCH</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="VerifyReadyDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="WelcomeDlg" Order="2">Installed AND PATCH</Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceWelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="MaintenanceTypeDlg">1</Publish>

            <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="RepairButton" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="RemoveButton" Event="NewDialog" Value="VerifyReadyDlg">1</Publish>
            <Publish Dialog="MaintenanceTypeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="MaintenanceWelcomeDlg">1</Publish>

            <Property Id="ARPNOMODIFY" Value="1" />
        </UI>

        <UIRef Id="WixUI_Common" />
    </Product>
</Wix>

Answer 1

Try to change the GUID of the components which are not uninstalling. I tried the same and it worked for me. It may be because the GUID is already registered in the registry by some other product.

The cause is generally messed up component reference count in the registry - often it happens on dev-boxes during development. Can also often happen to Installshield packages due to their use of the SharedDllRefCount concept (legacy, non-MSI reference counting).

Some technical details: Change my component GUID in wix? Test on a clean virtual to verify the problem is real and not a dev-box issue. Changing component GUIDs can have repercussions (patching problems etc...).