Silent Uninstallation of Microsoft product

[william.s]

Hi

I am trying to use the command:

C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesMicrosoft SharedOFFICE15Office Setup Controllersetup.exe /uninstall VISSTD /dll OSETUP.DLL /config \sharedserverxmlsilentuninstall.xml

the setup.exe resides in the remote pc (targeted computer to uninstall) and it has a parameter that refer to the xml file in a central server.

How do I go about running that command on the remote pc? I tried to execute via the remote process 4 but to no avail. Exit code 1 is returned.

[doug]

Hello William –

1. If you are using ‘Alternate Credentials’ in BatchPatch, then you will definitely have a problem with the .xml file being on a central server. It would have to be on the target computer that is running the setup.exe. And even if you are not using ‘Alternate Credentials’ this could still be an issue (though I’m not certain if it’s the issue you are encountering).

2. Remote Process 1/2 are executed differently from Remote Process 3/4. In some cases 1/2 will work when 3/4 fail.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Try the same command with Remote Process 1/2. See if that works or not.

2. Put the .xml on the target computer instead of on a shared server. See if that works (again you might need to use Remote Process 1/2 instead of 3/4). You can use BatchPatch to copy the .xml to target computers using the ‘Actions > Copy file/folder’ menu option.

I hope this helps.

-Doug

[william.s]

Hello doug

Yes, it works with remote process 1. Thanks for your help.

BTW, for my understanding, why using Alternate Credential would have issue with central server?

Say I am using a domain administrator account that can access the remote PC and shared folder in the central server. Also the shared folder can also be accessed by normal domain users.

Would the Alternate Credential (domain admin) works?

Thanks!

[doug]

William – Thanks for reporting back. I’m glad you got things working with remote process 1. As for the alternate credentials issue that I mentioned, I was wrong/confused, so what I said was not accurate. The issue that I was concerned about is sometimes referred to as a “double-hop” network authentication issue. It wouldn’t affect you in the alternate credentials scenario as I had stated. However, I believe it *could* affect you in the integrated security scenario (when NOT using alternate credentials) under certain circumstances. Essentially the issue is that when you use integrated security in BatchPatch to execute a script on a remote computer, the remote computer has to impersonate the logon account that BatchPatch is running under (first hop), but from there due to how impersonation works, the remote computer cannot access network resources (second hop). Essentially, windows will allow you to use impersonated credentials to access local resources (during the first hop), but it won’t allow you to delegate the impersonated credentials to another remote resource (second hop). This clearly is not always a problem because you are not encountering it (I believe it depends on the type of authentication that is being used), but if one does encounter the problem, the solution can actually be to use alternate credentials instead of integrated security because in that case impersonation is not used. Instead, the alternate credentials are actually copied to the remote system, and then when the task is executed there is no double-hop issue if the remote computer then needs to access a central/shared third server because the connection to the central/shared third server would actually only be the first hop, not the second. The double-hop issue is complicated, and I’m not an expert. However, I believe what I have stated above is a reasonably accurate description of how it works.

-Doug

[william.s]

Doug many thanks for your detailed write-up.

I would keep that in mind as I work more with Batchpatch.

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