Systems Management

There are a limited number of scenarios which actually require a reboot. Many vendors insert a reboot because they're too lazy to do the job properly.

First, find out why the reboot occurs. My suspicion is that Pro adds to the System path, which the uninstall removes, but don't quote me.A simple before-and-after-the-reboot snapshot will highlight what changed.

what are some programs normally used for snap shots? preferably free?

I have wise packge studio 7 and used the snapshot in that which did list a fair few things but Im not sure what to do next?

sorry, im only into very basic packaging

Holy cow...AppDeploy's search would turn up many, many posts with recommendations for snapshotting tools, never mind Google.

Try InstallWatch.

thanks..im not really too concerned with the program, I did actually get installwatch from google. Im not sure what to do after that though. How do you package an uninstall? Im just running msiexec /x

Im not sure what to do after that thoughErrr....take a snapshot?

It's very simple:

- uninstall Pro 7
- take a 'Before' snapshot
- reboot
- take an 'After' snapshot
- see what changed

Have you tried something as simple as passing the REBOOT property on the command line when uninstalling? Or using a transform with that property set appropriately? I suggest a transform, as you may need to change the RebootYesNo property which isn't a public property and thus can't be passed via the command line.

ok, originally I was using msiexec /x to uninstall so thats why I was confused with creating a transform

So if I run the original msi again, it gives me an uninstall option. Normally I would use wise to create an mst but because the software is already installed it wont let me run the base msi :(

im not sure how to create an mst using orca from scratch (I usually just edit them)

also I can supress the reboot but It wont re-install adobe 7 std because it says it needs a restart. So can I just get around that somehow?

im not sure how to create an mst using orca from scratch (I usually just edit them) - Make a copy of the MSI (Paranoia Park is a good place to be)
- Open the MSI
- Add your properties to the Property table
- Select the 'Transform/Generate Transform' menu item

BTW, get hold of InstEdit. It's Orca on steroids. There's also SuperOrca, but I have no experience of that yet.

Anyway, none of this helps you, since this will only affect new installs. As I mentioned, you need to find out why the reboot is "required". Once you know that, you can probably work around it.

Lastly, none of this has anything to do with SMS/SCCM. The post ought really to be in the 'Package Development' forum.