Close Running App on Uninstall

Common questions about using Actual Installer.
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Scad
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:53 am

Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Scad »

I like the feature to define a running app that must be closed before installation.

In my case, working with codebase-dlls which can be accessed (and blocked) by another programm, I also would like to define a running app that must be closed before uninstallation!
Becaus if the programm using my dlls is still running, uninstaller is not allowed to remove these blocked dlls!

As a workaround I also wrote a little Dialogue-exe which asks the user to close the programm first (he usually needs to save his work, so I'm not allowed to simply shut it down).
But inside this .exe-Dialogue I don't have the option to stop uninstallation, if user doesn't want to close his programm...

So a built-in version with the possibility to exit uninstallation would be great.

Is there any other workaround or built-in way I have missed here? If not I would be thankful if ou could move this post to suggestions/feature-requests.

Thanks,

Scad
Leo
Site Admin
Posts: 455
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:40 pm

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Leo »

Hi Scad,

On the page System \ Commands you can specify a command to terminate this process or launch you app with timing Before Uninstallation.
The command to terminate a process is described here:
http://www.actualinstaller.com/help/commands.html
Leo,
Actual Installer Team
https://www.actualinstaller.com
Scad
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:53 am

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Scad »

Thanks, I completely forgot the option to use cmd commands.

Sadly, in my special case, killing the task or process is no option :-/
Because in the programm I need to close (CAD-CAM-Software), user may never loose any unsaved changes.
Therefore he needs to be prompted to save his work manually and I must be able to wait until he did so and closed his programm with saving. Just exactly the same like your prompt for "Close Running Application" before installation does.
Up to now, I found no cmd-command which does exactly what I need here. But I'm not so used to cmd-commands and I will go on searching for the options I need.

Maybe this usecase is too special and I always have to specify a programm myself and launch it "before uninstallation", this works fine.
In general, for things like that, I have another question (or should I open a new Topic for that?):

Is it possible to code any custom dialogue-executable (for example in Winforms), use it via commands and then, if user clicked "Abort" or "Cancel" inside this custom dialogue, to completely abort the installation or uninstallation? So can I give any Dialogueresult to the Installer or something like this?
ggrewe
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:50 pm

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by ggrewe »

Scad,

We also have an application like this. In our application, we placed a hook that traps a Application Shutdown and, depending on the type of shutdown, displays this type of message. If there is no user response after 30 seconds, the app continues with the shutdown request.


Greg
Scad
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:53 am

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Scad »

Thanks Greg,

so, at the moment, I did a workaround in my case for this shutdown of the application.

But for the user, its not really comfortable. So again my question:

Is it possible to abort the uninstallation, if any of my "Before Uninstallation"-Commands failed?

Lets say it doesn't matter why it fails and it doesn't matter what it does, it is just needed to cancel the uninstallation by code or any commands at this point, without uninstalling anything!
Leo
Site Admin
Posts: 455
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:40 pm

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Leo »

The new version 6.9 (just released) has this feature:
Menu View \ Option \ Advanced - Exit Code for Fail Command
Leo,
Actual Installer Team
https://www.actualinstaller.com
Scad
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:53 am

Re: Close Running App on Uninstall

Post by Scad »

Thanks, great, that makes me much more flexible in adding background-programms inside commands, which do every strange thing I want my system to do on (un)installation and which in some cases fail to do it. Will test it these days :-)
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