# win\_package uninstall example?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [June 8, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708 "2016-06-08T21:58:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/1 "2016-06-08T21:58:24Z")

</div>

I’m trying to figure out how to use win\_package to uninstall software. The state=“absent” would do an uninstall?

It would seem this module can be used only for package installation?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 9:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/2 "2016-06-09T09:43:03Z")

</div>

Yes adding

state: absent

will uninstall the package. Something like this:

- name: remove java 8 if present  
win\_package:  
name: “Java SE Development Kit 8 Update 73 (64-bit)”  
path: “c:\packages\jdk-8u73-windows-x64.exe”  
product\_id: ‘{64A3A4F4-B792-11D6-A78A-00B0D0180730}’  
state: absent  
arguments: /s /L C:\logs\java8jdk-removal.log

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/3 "2016-06-09T20:04:32Z")

</div>

Thank you for the example.

I’m testing win\_package to remove Silverlight and after 15 minutes of waiting Ansible has not returned.

Here is the task I’m using.

- name: remove packages (win\_package)  
win\_package: \>  
name=“Microsoft Silverlight”  
path=“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe”  
product\_id=“{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}”  
state=“absent”

Here is the relevant (-vvvv) output

TASK [windows-workstations : remove packages (win\_package)] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
task path: /Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/playbooks.git/roles/windows-workstations/tasks/main.yml:86  
Using module file /Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/ansible/lib/ansible/modules/extras/windows/win\_package.ps1  
\<10.X.X.X\> ESTABLISH WINRM CONNECTION FOR USER: Administrator on PORT 5986 TO 10.X.X.X  
\<10.X.X.X\> EXEC Set-StrictMode -Version Latest  
(New-Item -Type Directory -Path $env:temp -Name “ansible-tmp-1465501508.58-107879928529086”).FullName | Write-Host -Separator ‘’;  
\<10.X.X.X\> PUT “/var/folders/y\_/w\_pbl7355vg3gv5xkmsld49m0000gn/T/tmpHf7TfN” TO “C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ansible-tmp-1465501508.58-107879928529086\win\_package.ps1”  
\<10.X.X.X\> EXEC Set-StrictMode -Version Latest  
Try  
{  
& ‘C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ansible-tmp-1465501508.58-107879928529086\win\_package.ps1’  
}  
Catch  
{  
$_obj = @{ failed = $true }  
If ($_.Exception.GetType)  
{  
$_obj.Add(‘msg’, $_.Exception.Message)  
}  
Else  
{  
$_obj.Add(‘msg’, $_.ToString())  
}  
If ($_.InvocationInfo.PositionMessage)  
{  
$obj.Add(‘exception’, $.InvocationInfo.PositionMessage)  
}  
ElseIf ($_.ScriptStackTrace)  
{  
$_obj.Add(‘exception’, $_.ScriptStackTrace)  
}  
Try  
{  
$_obj.Add(‘error\_record’, ($_ | ConvertTo-Json | ConvertFrom-Json))  
}  
Catch  
{  
}  
Echo $\_obj | ConvertTo-Json -Compress -Depth 99  
Exit 1  
}  
Finally { Remove-Item “C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ansible-tmp-1465501508.58-107879928529086” -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }

What can I do to troubleshoot this further?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/4 "2016-06-10T01:36:18Z")

</div>

And finally after 281m

Finally { Remove-Item “C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ansible-tmp-1465501508.58-107879928529086” -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }

Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/ansible/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/winrm.py”, line 271, in exec\_command  
result = self.\_winrm\_exec(cmd\_parts[0], cmd\_parts[1:], from\_exec=True)  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/ansible/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/winrm.py”, line 217, in \_winrm\_exec  
response = Response(self.protocol.get\_command\_output(self.shell\_id, command\_id))  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/winrm/protocol.py”, line 333, in get\_command\_output  
self.\_raw\_get\_command\_output(shell\_id, command\_id)  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/winrm/protocol.py”, line 352, in \_raw\_get\_command\_output  
res = self.send\_message(xmltodict.unparse(req))  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/winrm/protocol.py”, line 207, in send\_message  
return self.transport.send\_message(message)  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/winrm/transport.py”, line 173, in send\_message  
response = self.session.send(prepared\_request, timeout=self.read\_timeout\_sec)  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/sessions.py”, line 585, in send  
r = adapter.send(request, \*\*kwargs)  
File “/Users/tanner/projects/ansible.git/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/adapters.py”, line 479, in send  
raise ReadTimeout(e, request=request)  
ReadTimeout: HTTPSConnectionPool(host=‘10.77.86.83’, port=5986): Read timed out. (read timeout=30)  
fatal: [win7-90day]: UNREACHABLE! =\> {“changed”: false, “msg”: “failed to exec cmd PowerShell -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -EncodedCommand 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”, “unreachable”: true}  
to retry, use: --limit @/Users/tanner/Downloads/ansible-retry/windows-workstations.retry

PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
win7-90day : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=1 failed=0

real 281m28.651s  
user 3m28.843s  
sys 2m12.636s

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 7:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/5 "2016-06-10T07:50:57Z")

</div>

My guess would be the (un)installer is hanging as its asking the user for info, which won’t ever get supplied because there’s no gui and eventually you hit a timeout or one of the winrm quota limits

You could try using raw to run msiexec with switches to write to a log file and see what info there is in the logs.

Also depending on the user you are running as, you may not have permissions to make changes to C:\Program Files\ - its more locked down in later versions of windows that it used to be long ago. This may not apply if you are running as administrator, but you might need to turn off UAC prompting for Administrators, which you can do by tweaking the registry:

HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System  
set  
ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin  
to 0 to turn off and 5 to turn back on again (at least on s2012 R2)

Don’t know if you have seen this but I put some tips for installing stuff on windows in my AnsibleFest London presentation which is available here:  
[http://www.slideshare.net/jhawkesworth/ansible-20-windows-and-no-powershell-this-year-i-promise-ansiblefest-london-2016](http://www.slideshare.net/jhawkesworth/ansible-20-windows-and-no-powershell-this-year-i-promise-ansiblefest-london-2016)

Hope this helps,

Jon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/6 "2016-06-10T17:49:42Z")

</div>

Very good info. Thank you!

Not sure this group or this thread is the right place to ask, but can you talk about Interactive services (slide 27) I do not understand why you would want to turn them off or on.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/7 "2016-06-11T19:21:21Z")

</div>

Uninstalling Windows packages via Ansible is hard. Is this normal? I feeling like I’m missing something fundamental using Ansible to manage Windows.

Here’s my playbook.

- name: disable UAC pop up for Administrators

win\_regedit:  
key: HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System  
value: ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin  
data: 00000000  
datatype: dword

- name: remove packages (win\_package)  
win\_package: \>  
name=“Microsoft Silverlight”  
path=“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe”  
product\_id=“{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}”  
state=“absent”

The task hangs and eventually timeout. Started to get desperate and added these plays:

- name: disallow interactive services  
win\_regedit:  
key: HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows  
value: NoInteractiveServices  
data: 00000001  
datatype: dword

- name: stop Interactive Services Detection  
win\_service:  
name: ‘UI0Detect’  
start\_mode: manual  
state: stopped

Still the uninstall hangs and times out.

When I try uninstalling Silverlight via:

msiexec /uninstall “{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}” /l C:\logs\zzz.log

I get the “Windows Installer” dialog prompting to confirm the uninstall.  
Click “Yes” and Silverlight is uninstalled. Nothing of much value in the C:\logs\zzz.log file.

msiexec /uninstall “{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}” /l C:\logs\zzz.log \quiet

Uninstalls without any dialog. Nothing of much value in the logs.

How do I duplicate this uninstall with win\_package?

I cannot seem to get win\_msi to work either.

I am brute forcing things with script ☹

- name: remove packages (powershell script)  
script: files/remove-package.ps1

remote-package.ps1

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32\_Product -Filter “IdentifyingNumber = ‘{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}’”  
$app.Uninstall()

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/8 "2016-06-13T22:39:11Z")

</div>

Hi,

Although I’ve not tried uninstalling silverlight, I’ve certainly found some other things to be as difficult to uninstall as you seem to be above.  
A lot of installers seem to have the assumption that there will be someone sitting there at a GUI answering questions.  
I wound up using a brute force script to remove a particular version of java a little while back - the uninstallation just refused to work in a fully unattended manner (something that seems to have been fixed with the java 8 versions I’ve hit so far).

Generally though, unless its something very simple, newer stuff seems to be better at being installed and uninstalled in a fully unattended manner. Its definitely worth poking suppliers about this too - fully automated install and uninstall is good for them to as they can automate their testing better after all.

You asked about interactive services. I may have explained better during my talk - the audio is available here - [https://www.ansible.com/ansible-2-windows](https://www.ansible.com/ansible-2-windows) - however the short version is long ago it was perfectly possible to write windows services which also interacted with the user via the system tray and by display forms. Such interactive services ran on the first gui session that was started, known as the console session but this caused security vulnerabilities. Its probably much better explained here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatter\_attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatter_attack) - but more recent versions of windows have isolated the session which services run in from the sessions that ordinary interactive users log into, hence the need for Interactive Service Detection and the need to switch between the console session and user session so you can see the GUI of interactive services. The most recent versions of windows default to not allowing Interactive Services (presumably the thinking is that enough time has passed now for apps to have been re-written so that the GUI components exist in a separate user space program which communicates with the service via the service message api).

Jon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trond\_Hindenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@Trond\_Hindenes](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Trond_Hindenes)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/9 "2016-06-14T10:58:06Z")

</div>

Disabling UAC will have no effect. Any session coming in thru WinRM is by default elevated.

As Jon writes, some packages are simply difficult/super-hard/impossible to uninstall in an unattended way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Matt\_Davis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Matt\_Davis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Matt_Davis)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/win-package-uninstall-example/21708/10 "2016-06-14T21:09:58Z")

</div>

Ansible’s a pretty thin wrapper around the platform capabilities- installing/uninstalling software on Windows is tricky, as every installer is a special snowflake, and many assume that there’s a user sitting there to answer dialogs.

That said, I know Sliverlight fully supports unattended install/uninstall- have a look at [http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/d/78da8ec9-8801-42e5-89e5-3809386f1316/Silverlight%20Deployment%20Guide.doc](http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/d/78da8ec9-8801-42e5-89e5-3809386f1316/Silverlight%20Deployment%20Guide.doc)

I suspect the switch you’re looking for is “/qu” (silent uninstall).