How to uninstall with msiexec using product id guid without msi file present

Question

I m trying to automate the uninstallation of packages created using WiX for the purposes of changing the installed software stack  amp  configuration without reprovisioning a whole OS  Eventually I ll use powershell scripting to do this but at the moment I can t seem to get my test package to uninstall interactively with cmd   If I run   msiexec  x   A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8    msiexec  x A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8  I get    The installation package could not be opened  Verify that the package exists and that you can access it  or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Package    If I run  msiexec  x  A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8   I get    This action is only valid for products that are currently installed   I ve looked at the windows installer guide  the WiX documentation  msiexec documentation and used orca to go over the  msi myself but I ve not really found anything that gives a clear picture of how an uninstall is processed  Is the  msi file required and if not then why does windows installer seem to think it is when given a GUID   The WiX code for the  msi installer is    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  windows-1252   gt   lt Wix xmlns  htp   schemas microsoft com wix 2006 wi   gt      lt  --DO NOT COPY   PASTE THE PRODUCT ID GUID BELOW TO YOUR OWN WIX SOURCE -- gt      lt Product Id  A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8  Language  2057              Manufacturer  COMPANYNAME IT-Operations              Name  COMPANYNAMEServerListener  Version  1 0 0              UpgradeCode  PUT-GUID-HERE  gt       lt Package Id     Manufacturer  COMPANYNAME IT-Operations  Compressed  yes    gt      lt Media Id  1  Cabinet  COMPANYNAMEServerListener cab  EmbedCab  yes    gt        lt Directory Id  TARGETDIR  Name  SourceDir  gt         lt Directory Id  ProgramFilesFolder  Name  PFiles  gt         lt Directory Id  COMPANYNAME  Name  COMPANYNAME  gt           lt Directory Id  INSTALLDIR  Name  COMPANYNAMEServerListener  gt           lt Component Id  MainExecutable  Guid      gt             lt File Id  COMPANYNAMEServerListener exe                   Source  COMPANYNAMEServerListener exe  Vital  yes                   KeyPath  yes    gt             lt ServiceInstall              Id  COMPANYNAMEServerListenerInstall              DisplayName  COMPANYNAMEServerListener              Description  Accepts and discards TCP connections on port 28028 to indicate that this server is alive and ready to be controlled              Name  COMPANYNAMEServerListener              Account  NT AUTHORITY LocalService              ErrorControl  normal              Start  auto              Type  ownProcess              Vital  yes                        gt               lt ServiceDependency Id  tcpip   gt             lt  ServiceInstall gt             lt ServiceControl Id  StartService  Start  install  Stop  both  Remove  uninstall  Name  COMPANYNAMEServerListener  Wait  yes    gt           lt  Component gt           lt  Directory gt           lt  Directory gt         lt  Directory gt         lt  Directory gt        lt Feature Id  Complete  Level  1   gt         lt ComponentRef Id  MainExecutable    gt       lt  Feature gt        lt CustomTable Id   COMPANYNAMEMetadata  gt         lt Column Id  Property  Type  string  Category  Identifier  PrimaryKey  yes   gt         lt Column Id  Value  Type  string   gt         lt Row gt         lt Data Column  Property  gt InstallString lt  Data gt         lt Data Column  Value  gt  qn lt  Data gt         lt  Row gt       lt  CustomTable gt       lt  Product gt   lt  Wix gt

User · Answer

The good thing is  this one is really easily and deterministically to analyze  Either  the msi package is really not installed on the system or you re doing something wrong  Of course the correct call is   msiexec  x  A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8     Admin rights needed of course- With curly braces without any quotes here- quotes are only needed  if paths or values with blank are specified in the commandline   If the message is   This action is only valid for products that are currently installed   then this is true  Either the package with this ProductCode is not installed or there is a typo   To verify where the fault is    First try to right click on the  probably  installed  msi file itself  You will see  besides  Install  and  Repair   an Uninstall entry  Click on that  a  If that uninstall works  your msi has another ProductCode than you expect  maybe you have the wrong WiX source or your build has dynamic logging where the ProductCode changes   b  If that uninstall gives the same     only valid for products already installed  the package is not installed  which is obviously a precondition to be able to uninstall it     If 1 a  was the case  you can look for the correct ProductCode of your package  if you open your msi file with Orca  Insted or another editor tool  Just google for them  Look there in the table with the name  Property  and search for the string  ProductCode  in the first column  In the second column there is the correct value    There are no other possibilities   Just a suggestion for the used commandline  I would add at least the   qb  for a simple progress bar or   qn  parameter  the latter for complete silent uninstall  but makes only sense if you are sure it works

User · Answer

Try this command  msiexec  x  product-id   qr

User · Answer

you need  q at the end  MsiExec exe  x  2F808931-D235-4FC7-90CD-F8A890C97B2F   q

User · Answer

Reference-Style  Answer  This is an alternative answer to the one below with several different options shown  Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec      The command you specify is correct  msiexec  x  A4BFF20C-A21E-4720-88E5-79D5A5AEB2E8   If you get  This action is only valid for products that are currently installed  you have used an unrecognized product or package code  and you must find the right one  Often this can be caused by using an erroneous package code instead of a product code to uninstall - a package code changes with every rebuild of an MSI file  and is the only guid you see when you view an msi file s property page  It should work for uninstall  provided you use the right one  No room for error  If you want to find the product code instead  you need to open the MSI  The product code is found in the Property table     UPDATE  Jan 2018   With all the registry redirects going on  I am not sure the below registry-based approach is a viable option anymore  I haven t checked properly because I now rely on the following approach using PowerShell  How can I find the product GUID of an installed MSI setup   Also check this reference-style answer describing different ways to uninstall an MSI package and ways to determine what product version you have installed  Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec    Legacy  registry option   You can also find the product code by perusing the registry from this base key  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall   Press F3 and search for your product name   If it s a 32-bit installer on a 64-bit machine  it might be under HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Wow6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall instead    Legacy  PowerShell option   largely similar to the new  linked answer above   Finally  you can find the product code by using PowerShell   get-wmiobject Win32 Product   Format-Table IdentifyingNumber  Name     Similar post  WiX - Doing a major upgrade on a multi instance install  screenshot of how to find the product code in the MSI

User · Answer

There s no reason for the    command not to work  The semi-obvious questions are    You are sure that the product is actually installed  There s something in ARP Programs amp Features  The original install is in fact visible in the current context  It looks as if it might have been a per-user install  and if you are logged in as somebody else now then it won t know about it - you d need to log in under the same account as the original install   If the  windows installer directory was damaged the cached file would be missing  and that s used to do the uninstall

User · Answer

msiexec exe  x   588A9A11-1E20-4B91-8817-2D36ACBBBF9F    q

User · Answer

Thanks all for the help - turns out it was a WiX issue   When the Product ID GUID was left explicit  amp  hardcoded as in the question  the resulting  msi had no ProductCode property but a Product ID property instead when inspected with orca   Once I changed the GUID to     to auto-generate  the ProductCode showed up and all works fine with syntax confirmed by the other answers

[wix] How to uninstall with msiexec using product id guid without .msi file present

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