Wix, Windows installer Restart Manager preventing service uninstall?

Question

I have a WiX-based Windows installer where part of the install is to start a service. This is running on Windows 7, so uses Windows Installer v5.0.

Everything seems to work fine on the install--all files are installed in the correct locations. I have things set up so I can avoid turning the service on (no 'Start' attribute in the ServiceControl tag). When I rerun the msiexec /i and choose 'Remove' from the modification dialog, however, everything is deleted except the service (in the Service control panel) and the service .exe file, and then the Restart Manager attempts to restart the service!

I've gone through the log for the last three days looking for a solution to why this is happening: why the service .exe is not uninstalled, and why the Restart Manager attempts to restart it, since it was not explicitly excluded. The component containing the service is, for some unknown reason that does not appear in the log, marked as Null for the action to be taken, while every other file in the installation is marked to be removed.

Anybody have any idea if the Restart Manager somehow can interfere with a service being marked for removal during uninstall? I assume the Restart Manager is trying to restart the service because the component containing it isn't going away, but would like that confirmed or denied, too.

Any help or information would be appreciated! Dave

caveman_dick caveman_dick · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-22T11:57:22

Have you specified to stop the service and remove on uninstall? This is how I setup a service that needs to start in the stopped state and be removed on uninstall:

<ServiceControl Id="MyService"
                Name="MyService"
                Stop="both"
                Remove="uninstall" />

Wix, Windows installer Restart Manager preventing service uninstall?

1 Answers