Any way to mass uninstall software via distributions?
We have software on about 3,000 machines that we must remove this year due to lack of licensing. We don't have the initial setup file, however. I do have the uninstall string, which works from a 'run now' batch file script - but pushing a script out to 3,000 machines would hurt the network I'd guess. Is there a way to do it via the distributions tab, so that it does it on machines during next check in?
Or what is the best practice for this?
Answers (3)
I'll just be running a batch file that has an uninstall command. I could do 'online script', and ask it to run every 2 hours with it checking for the software on the machine.
I doubt the network would suffer on distributing the uninstall string to 3000 clients. The script can't be more than 1 kb and shouldn't affect the network at all, unless the uninstall require a restart, so all the clients restarts at the same time.
You're distributing 3 x 1Kb = 3000 Kb ~ 3Mb
Comments:
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Gotcha - ok - I was just always told not to push something out to that many at once. However, a 'run once' won't be ideal since they all won't be on at that time. What's the best option then? An online script that runs every X hours? - sfigg 12 years ago
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Use a script, and verify a file exists that a file exists that the software creates. That way after the uninstall the file will be removed, and the script will not run on those machines again.
Another way would be to create a label for "software title exists" and run a managed uninstall for that label. - dugullett 12 years ago
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Yeah, it depends on what your are distributing. If it's an installation, where the media is located on a server and all the clients connect for installation at the same time, it could cause some overload on the network. In this case you trigger an uninstall, which is performed locally on each machine.
I've never used KACE-products, so I don't know what the distribution options are regarding this matter, but don't the 'run once' option queue on each machine? So if it's not online, it will run when the client is online? - andemats 12 years ago -
I'll just be running a batch file that has an uninstall command. I could do 'online script', and ask it to run every 2 hours with it checking for the software on the machine.
Thanks :) - sfigg 12 years ago
It would be a script, but you could also try the uninstaller wizard. It basically builds a script to do the uninstall based off of the uninstall string.
Scripting>Configuration Policy>Un-installer Wizard
P.186 in the admin guide shows more: http://www.kace.com/support/resources/~/media/Files/Support/Resources/Documentation/K1000-Admin-Guide-v53.ashx
Short of that, you should also be able to set up a managed install using the uninstall string and "run command only".
The command would be something like msiexec.exe /x {31FDD829-0310-4ADA-BF67-792F063FDDD6}
You will have to find the way to uninstall it from one of the machines and then script that to an uninstall package. Deploy that Uninstall package to these machines to uninstall it completely.
If you do not get any way to uninstall then you will have to check for all files and registries and then create a script to manually delete them.
