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NSIS: Uninstall via RMDir /r $INSTDIR is not safe

See original GitHub issue

The NSIS uninstaller uses RMDir /r $INSTDIR to remove the installation directory.

As mentioned in the NSIS documentation it is not a safe command to execute. The reason is that people may accidentally install the application in the Program Files directory and wipe the whole directory, including all installed programs, on uninstall.

Another issue is that this approach is not friendly towards app directory customization: People may add additional config files and folders local to the installation. Upon update these files are removed along with the whole installation directory.

We could improve the uninstaller to only remove installed files to improve the situation.

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 5 years ago
Comments:8 (8 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

2reactions

nikkucommented, Aug 2, 2018

I could work on integrating the remove only installed files feature if you see a chance to merge the changes.

1reaction

develarcommented, Aug 2, 2018

No, you cannot install to Program Files or to another such dir. Because even if you will allow to choose installation dir, you cannot select any dir. Please see https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/blob/master/packages/app-builder-lib/templates/nsis/assistedInstaller.nsh#L45

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