Why does InstallShield 2015 InstallScript Installer asks for Restart during Uninstallation?

Question

We have been using Installscript installer created using InstallShield 2015 SP2 tool for installing our applications from past many years, but while working on our new release, I have been getting a new dialog box at the end of the UnInstallation process of this Installscript installer. It displays message as uninstall complete and gives two radio button option at the bottom of the dialog box mentioned below.

1. Yes, I want to restart my computer now.
2. No, I will restart my computer later.

However, there is no such code added in the Installscript project of the installer which asks for restart once uninstallation is completed. I did searched on google but no luck. Hope anyone knows how to stop this dialog box from appearing at the end of uninstallation of the installer.

Answer 1

Short Answer: My guess is that an in-use file (locked) has caused the scheduling of an automatic reboot prompt to appear. Locked files are almost always the cause of such problems and the prompt is a built-in feature of MSI itself. The file in-use could be a service file that is not shut down properly (timeout or design errors in the MSI). Some details below. You should enable logging to work out what triggered the reboot prompt.

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Docs Microsoft: Logging of Reboot Requests. Sample from log file:

Info 1603. The file E:\testdb\Test\CustAct2.dll is being held in use.

Info 1903.Scheduling reboot operation: Deleting file [filename]. Must 
reboot to complete operation.

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Logging: You should enable logging to work out what triggered the reboot prompt. Here is an answer on logging: Enable installation logs for MSI installer without any command line arguments. You can 1) enable the logging policy and then you can find a log for each uninstall that is run in the TEMP folder. 2) You can also invoke the uninstall with msiexec.exe /x and specify a logging location there in the command line. See the linked answer for details.

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Uninstall Logging: See section 3 here for uninstall logging commands: Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec

msiexec.exe /x "c:\filename.msi" /QN /L*V "C:\msilog.log" REBOOT=ReallySuppress
msiexec.exe /x {11111111-1111-1111-1111-11111111111X} /QN /L*V "C:\msilog.log" REBOOT=ReallySuppress

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Reboot Prompt Cause: Most likely the cause of the reboot prompt is a file that is in use and hence could not be removed. MSI has auto-magic features to then trigger a reboot to replace or remove the file. A restart makes that possible. There are also many other potential causes for the reboot prompt. You could have stuff registered that needs a reboot to properly unregister. Along the same lines as files in use, but it could involve all kinds of registration system-wide.

Services: A special case of files in use are services. Do you have any in your setup? Very often the reboot prompt is caused by the service not shutting down properly. This can be because of timing issues (it is too slow to stop) or there are no proper commands in the setup for uninstallation scenarios to stop the service as it should on uninstall.

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REINSTALLMODE: Note that setting the REINSTALLMODE property to "amus" - force overwrite (files and registry) - has shown itself to lead to many more reboot prompts for many MSI packages on installation (can affect uninstall too, though I don't see it set so often for uninstall).

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Restart Manager: There are new features in Windows to deal with the problems of rebooting. The overall idea is to prefer to shut down applications auto-magically with a restart parameter registered for the application to restart itself after the deployment operation - rather than triggering system reboots. There is information about this feature here:

• Reboot on install, Don't reboot on uninstall (short version on top)
• Windows Installer-Avoid FileinUse dialog box when Installing a package (more elaborate mid-page)
• In-use files not updated by MSI-installer (Visual Studio Installer project)