Ranger package builder to uninstall

[starscream]

Is it safe to use ranger package builder to remove previously installed software? I have a lot of software on machines that was installed before ranger was installed so it can't be removed from ranger.

As ranger package builder creates an image before an install and then creates a second image after the install and then using the differences in files and registry entries etc to install software, can the same be done to uninstall software or is this bad practise. In theory is seems fine to do this. Am I correct or is there something I haven't thought of that could mess things us if I use this method to mass uninstall software?

If I went ahead with this and was to run the package on all computers to remove a piece of software and one computer didnt have the software would it simply make no changes or could I end up in a mess?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[chrisa]

Yes it can be done. But don't

I used it to remove some applications from 100 PC's a couple of summers ago and it stopped office working and all sorts of other things.

In the end I had to ghost them all to fix the problem

[starscream]

darn. Know any other way to mass remove software that wasn't installed using ranger or gpo?

[chrisa]

The only other way I have found is to set on an apprentice



Sorry not that I know of

[starscream]

as in work experience person or something? heh

[starscream]

It dosn't look like ranger allows you to uninstakll packages you have deployed either! That is a nightmare! I installed the iTalc client and it was fine ont he first few machines but on the rest is crashes badly and needs to be removed. Guess I need to manually do it!

[chrisa]

From what I can remember of ranger, You just remove the package from the list and it will uninstall from the client, just like you would with active directory.

It has been A while since I used ranger though

[snrweb]

AFAIK the only way to remove Ranger Packages is with control panel - add/remove on the program.

Deleting a package from the list does not remove it from machines. It only removes the package files from the server.

Creating 'reverse packages' (IE snapshot 1 - removal - snapshot 2) is very dangerous and worse case scenario, could result in a negative universe that sucks you and all matter into it.

Only GPO-deployed MSI's have an easy removal option (and they often leave stuff hanging around as well).

[strawberry]

i sometimes use vnc managers to run a script to delete either key exe files ( to block access) or to execute uninstall files.

[starscream]

AFAIK the only way to remove Ranger Packages is with control panel - add/remove on the program.

Deleting a package from the list does not remove it from machines. It only removes the package files from the server.

Creating 'reverse packages' (IE snapshot 1 - removal - snapshot 2) is very dangerous and worse case scenario, could result in a negative universe that sucks you and all matter into it.

Only GPO-deployed MSI's have an easy removal option (and they often leave stuff hanging around as well).

Yeah I learned this the hard way today

No grey goo yet though either!


But seriously, how come bad things can happen when creating reverse packages? I fail to see how different it is to uninstalling something. Am I being niaive?

[strawberry]

my guess is that it doens't delete common files when it does uninstall.

[starscream]

by common do you mean system files?