Remote uninstall software not working correctly?

[crashff]

I removed a remote monitoring agent from all of our workstations using the software's own removal tool (LabTech, using Labtech's Agent Uninstaller) The program no longer shows in the Windows 7 Programs listing, and no longer has a folder on the hard drive either, yet Lansweeper is /still/ reporting the software as being installed on some workstations, and when I run the Remote Uninstaller utility, it scans the remote workstation and still has LabtechAD listed as an installed program.

I ran psexec msie to see if it was still there, and I get a return code saying that it only works for software that is installed. How can lansweeper report the software is still there, when the source it reads says the software isn't?

I also have issues where attempting to use the Software uninstaller does not silently uninstall anything. it instead pops up a message box repeatedly on the destination computer that interrupts the person working and will not go away unless I task kill it - the software I was attempting to uninstall never gets removed.

[Daniel_B]

We could not reproduce the issue. What do you see if you hit "Show Program Details" on the Interactive Services Detection popup?

[crashff]

I've been digging around into this more, and it looks like it may possibly be related to the following information about 32 vs 64bit and Session 0 operation: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/04/27/what-is-interactive-services-detection-and-why-is-it-blinking-at-me.aspx

[Daniel_B]

This either seems to be related to the software you are trying to uninstall or to other issues while remotely performing the uninstall. You might need to change the uninstall parameters as it seems to show a user interface under the system account. We can't reproduce this when trying to uninstall any common MSI packages using the most recent version of the software uninstaller tool (you can download it from this page). If you didn't do it already, we recommend downloading the latest version and trying it again.

As mentioned before, Lansweeper now has a deployment feature from the Professional edition on. It makes it a lot easier to handle modifications on network computers as you are able to choose under which credentials packages should be deployed and you will receive a deployment log message which indicates the cause of failures in case the deployment was not successful.

[crashff]

I found the registry entry. Thank you for that information. Deleting it did NOT remove it from the Uninstaller though.

The program does not show in the Windows program list, or in the software inventory in Lansweeper. Only in the RemoteUninst.exe utility.

As for the inability to remotely uninstall software -

1) I dont have the version of Lansweeper that allows for deployment. I have the standard 250 license, not Professional or higher; therefore I am using the included Software Uninstaller that is listed in the Advanced Actions (remoteuninst.exe) This program is running under domain administrator permissions.

2) This occurs for all MSI packages. I can run it through the Remote Uninstaller program in lansweeper and I get popup that looks like this:

even though there is no user interaction from the silent uninstall command for msiexec. If I click View Message, the screen goes gray, and there is another prompt like this:



Clicking "Return Now" causes the cycle to repeat itself over and over.

If I run the EXACT same uninstall command through PSEXEC using ANY network credentials, that notice never appears, and the software is successfully removed.

[Daniel_B · Accepted solution]

crashff wrote:
I removed a remote monitoring agent from all of our workstations using the software's own removal tool (LabTech, using Labtech's Agent Uninstaller) The program no longer shows in the Windows 7 Programs listing, and no longer has a folder on the hard drive either, yet Lansweeper is /still/ reporting the software as being installed on some workstations, and when I run the Remote Uninstaller utility, it scans the remote workstation and still has LabtechAD listed as an installed program.

I ran psexec msie to see if it was still there, and I get a return code saying that it only works for software that is installed. How can lansweeper report the software is still there, when the source it reads says the software isn't?

The list of installed software is scanned from registry. If you open an affected computer's asset page and hit Rescan asset, Lansweeper should update the list. Software which still gets listed will have an entry in some subkey of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
You might use a tool like RegScanner to find and remove it.

crashff wrote:
I also have issues where attempting to use the Software uninstaller does not silently uninstall anything. it instead pops up a message box repeatedly on the destination computer that interrupts the person working and will not go away unless I task kill it - the software I was attempting to uninstall never gets removed.

We recommend using the software deployment feature of Lansweeper to perform remote uninstalls. This allows you to perform it under system account on the target computer and prevent the logged on user from seeing any interface.
Important: MSI packages have default parameters for silent uninstalls. You can simply use the MSIUninstaller step of the deployment feature and submit the display name of the software you would like to remove. Non-MSI packages on the other hand are not always that easy to remove. You need to research for the correct parameters which trigger an unattended, silent uninstall. These vary from product to product.
Instructions on how to create a deployment package can be found here.