Savij

There is a problem removing the Guidance Automation Extensions package if there are existing package dependancies. When you try to remove the software from Add/Remove programs, you get a message stating something like this:

Then the uninstall rolls back, even though it says it will be ignored. Nice!

I found the file that contains this information and it’s in a hidden directory so you’ll need to “Show Hidden Files and Folders” in your Tools -> Folder Options -> View menu of windows explorer to see it. The location is at :

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Recipe Framework\RecipeFramework.xml

After looking at the contents of this file, you will notice something:

The GuidancePackage nodes have a Description attribute. On most of the lines in mine it reads:

Description=”Application Block Software Factory” Host=”VisualStudio” Guid=”8643B63B-A2A4-4ccc-933E-379645A3002E” ConfigurationFile=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.0 – April 2007\Application Block Software Factory\BlockFactory.xml

Well, it appears that I have the Enterprise Library installed and a package from it is interfering with my upgrade of the Guidance Automation Extensions.

Next step was temporarily uninstalling the Ent lib 3.0. I did this, but when trying to uninstall the GAX again, I still had one item left in the list:

The XML file entry had a caption of “Smart Client Development(Custom)“. This is the default name given to a package if you have ever made a change, or created one of your own packages. Mine was in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SCSF\GuidancePkg\Source\SmartClientDevelopment\bin\Debug\guidDD259E37_02BB_4b1c_9F14_737F534EEE22UI.dll

I renamed this file with a “.old” extension. And then I removed the line in the xml file:

<GuidancePackage Name=”guidDD259E37_02BB_4b1c_9F14_737F534EEE22″ Version=”1.0″ Caption=”Smart Client Development(Custom)” Description=”Smart Client Development” Host=”VisualStudio” Guid=”DD259E37-02BB-4b1c-9F14-737F534EEE22″ ConfigurationFile=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft SCSF\GuidancePkg\Source\SmartClientDevelopment\bin\Debug\\SmartClientDevelopment.xml” Timestamp=”632872331780000000″ />

Then the uninstall worked. Don’t forget to re-install Enterprise Library!

-Good Luck