Windows Installer Deletes Programs(?)

Hi,

Well,the answer is yes.
I could also have named the subject line: "The wicked way of Windows and M$"

Here's the story:
I decided to update the Windows Installer since I had an older version than is presently available.
The version I was installing is WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe

To my surprise this installation also triggered an uninstall of a program installed with InstallShield, being PC Linq,a USB to USB transfer and connection sofware.(which supports the USB to USB transfer cable)

The uninstall was extremely sneaky:It showed a microsecond flash of PCLinq,too short to really see it and then a confirmation dialog for the deletion of the files.
Since I hadn't seen the uninstall window fully,I assumed this to refer to the old Windows Installer files,so I approved it.

It turns out that InstallShield totally uninstalled the PCLinq program.
I found out about this when I checked my deleted(but protected)files.

Is this a known problem - WindowsInstaller activating InstallShield's uninstaller
or is it an underhand way of M$ to remove,what is in their view,an undesirable or unwanted program?

Has anybody had a similar experience or why is this happening?
Any advice or comments will be much appreciated.

Pete.

 

[Per DiggerP's request, this messages has been considerably edited to remove parts that have since been addressed by DiggerP's edits. Even though the FileAlyzer info below no longer applies to this issue, I'm leaving the FileAlyzer info intact because I think FileAlyzer is a generally useful utility.]


Hi, Pete.

I'm sorry I am not at all familiar with your issue.

I downloaded the KB893803 Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (3.1.4000.2435) from MS. Here's the FileAlyzer info in case one wishes to compare.

Code:

*****************************************************************
FileAlyzer © 2003-2006 Safer Networking Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************

File: WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v[B][COLOR="Red"]2[/COLOR][/B]-x86.exe

               Size: 2585872
            Version: 3.1.0.0
             CRC-32: 58B8154B
                MD5: 342F79337765760AD4E392EB67D5ED2C
               SHA1: 8318455B36BA0A748307459279D46F2F4CDB5A0E

I did not install the Windows Installer yet. I'll wait awhile before deciding whether it's worth installing or not.

 

Hi mailman,

Thanks for the reply and interest in this.

It was a typo and I corrected it. It is v2 not v3.
I know,I'm bad because it makes part of your post inaccurate.
I also took out: .. which would result in an update to msiexec.exe v3.1.4000.2435. ,
because that is inaccurate as well.
the 2435 applies to msi.dll.
msiexec is at 2130 or so and does not get updated with this update.
However you could edit that part out and I will edit the above out of this post

The reason I updated is that there were some "hanging" problems in
previous versions, so I thought let me check this out.
That's when I ran into this problem.

Pete.