SMSINST: Overwritten Files Are Not Restored During Uninstall (212854)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Systems Management Server Installer 2.0
This article was previously published under Q212854

SYMPTOMS

When you uninstall a program created by Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) Installer, the installer does not restore any files that were overwritten by the initial installation.

CAUSE

This behavior is by design. For example:

Consider a user who installs program A with version 1.0 of a DLL, and then installs program B with version 1.1 of the same DLL. The user later installs program C with version 1.5 of the same DLL, and then decides to uninstall program B. If SMS Installer were to restore the version of the DLL that it overwrote while installing program B, it would restore version 1.0, which would likely break program C because program C requires version 1.5 of the DLL.

It is recommended that you configure SMS Installer to back up overwritten files. Doing so allows these files to be preserved in a separate directory, from which they can be manually restored if necessary.

MORE INFORMATION

To learn more about creating backup copies of replaced files, refer to the SMS Installer online Help.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:6/14/2005
Keywords:kbAdvertisement kbBug kbClient kbConfig kbinterop kbPackage kbprb kbServer kbsmsUtil kbSoftwareDist KB212854
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