Windows installer bug?

[davidpanderson]

Someone reported that (on Windows) if you:

• install BOINC to a drive other than c:
• remove that drive
• try to install a later version of BOINC

... it fails because the uninstall fails, and you're stuck.
I think that if you reinstall the old version (to c:) and then uninstall it, it works.
But the user might not know what version this is, or where to get it.

[RichardHaselgrove]

This is one of a number of Windows installer bugs which have been known for years, and are regularly fielded by the user community on the BOINC message boards. Rom Walton used to punt them into the long grass, pending the development of a totally new open-source installer - which never happened.

This particular variant is a duplicate of #792, itself imported from trac ticket 815 - which was opened 14 years ago. Both the original reporter and I found that the only viable remedy was to edit the Windows registry to remove references to the non-existent drive.

[AenBleidd]

I plan to work on the new installer for the next release, and will resolve this issue there.
Since this is a old known bug, I see no reason to fix it now.

[RichardHaselgrove]

When you do so, please refer to @Ageless93's FAQ at https://boinc.mundayweb.com/wiki/index.php?title=Windows_Installer_Error_1706:_Setup_cannot_find_the_required_files for a list of pitfalls that an installer writer should try to avoid - and include #824, which isn't on Jord's list.