Visible and hidden uninstallers

InstallMate automatically includes an uninstaller in all installation packages (in fact, it uses a single Setup.exe executable for both installation and uninstallation). However, you can control whether or not this uninstaller is registered on the target system, and to which extent it is visible to the user and to other programs.

Uninstaller registration is done by entering a number of predefined strings under the under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<UninstallKey> registry key on the target system (or under HKEY_CURRENT_USER for per-user installs). By default, <UninstallKey> resolves to <ProductCode>, which in turn resolves to the Product GUID that you enter on the Product info project page.

The Windows Add/Remove Programs control panel applet uses the uninstall strings to display information about the product to the user, and to allow uninstallation or modification of the product. However, other programs can also access the same information for their own purposes.

Most of the uninstall information is derived from the fields on the Product info project page, but some of it is either generated automatically (for example, the location of the Setup.exe installer/uninstaller) or under other program control. In particular, the uninstaller registration itself is controlled by the Uninstaller attribute on the Installer options project page. This attribute supports the following values.