If you want to restore a previously existing registry key, you would have had to have saved it someplace, or at least saved the fact that it previously existed with enough information to recreate it. That means that in your RegistrySearches you would need to be able to distinguish the difference between a non-existent key (that you are defaulting, perhaps?) and a previously existing key.
Or, can you change the situation a bit? Is it bad to leave the registry key behind when you uninstall? Sometimes old droppings really aren't as bad as the destruction that can be caused by trying to do a comprehensive job cleaning up after yourself. -----Original Message----- From: Jan Wester [mailto:happyhon...@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 11:37 AM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] Conditional registry entries and handling them properly on uninstall Hello WiX community, After the advice given to me yesterday, I've been focusing on the subject I've had least replies on. Basically, I am trying to only write a registry entry if it does not exist and create some keys to go with it, or if it does exist, I want to modify things, and at uninstall time, restore things to how they were. Since my attempts so far combined with examples will probably be more informative, here they come: <Property Id="PROGID_XYZ" Value="Test.ProgID"> <RegistrySearch Id='ExtXyzRegistry' Type='raw' Root='HKLM' Key='Software\CLASSES\.xyz' /> </Property> That ought to fill PROGID_XYZ with an already existing ProgID, or if the filetype is unknown, substitute my own default handler. <Component Id="ComponentXYZ" Guid="<snip>"> <snip> <RegistryKey Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Classes\[PROGID_XYZ]" Action="createAndRemoveOnUninstall"> <RegistryValue Type="string" Name="SomeWeirdValue" Value="Stuff" /> </RegistryKey> </Component> This created the value in the proper place, but upon uninstallation, it removed the entire key, which makes sense since I asked it to. But in this case, the RegistrySearch was successful, and thus the appropriate ProgID already existed, and I essentially wiped out the file associations. Oops. How can I avoid this? If I were to make it action="create", I would never remove the handler afterwards if I understand correctly. To have it all in a little neat list, these are the requirements I am trying to achieve: * .XYZ exists - make changes in existing ProgID. * .XYZ does not exist - make the .XYZ key, and make my default ProgID. * Uninstallation: .XYZ already existed at installation - place back any settings I overwrote in the 'foreign' ProgID, and remove any new entries I made. * Uninstallation: .XYZ never existed at installation - remove .XYZ and my default ProgID. I have studied conditions, features, components and the various options available to me with a RegistrySearch, but I am pretty much lost. As such I appreciate any advice or examples you folks can give me to work off. :) Regards, Jan Wester ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
