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Troubleshooting the Uninstallation Process

Uninstallation is usually straightforward when the previous installation instructions have been followed correctly. This section describes how to recover from a failed uninstallation as well as some Windows anomalies that can affect the uninstallation of Siebel eBusiness Applications.

Recovering from a Failed Uninstallation

If you encounter any issue with the uninstallation process, you can run the uninstallation again. This uses the backup made by the uninstaller under the backup directory (ses_BAK) to reconstruct your original installation. You can then address the cause of the failure and run the uninstallation for a third time to complete the uninstallation process.

NOTE:  The recovery mechanism only can be used if the uninstallation process fails. It cannot be used to undo a successful uninstallation.

Uninstalling Siebel 6

Customers uninstalling Siebel eBusiness Applications, version 6.x under MS Windows may experience a failure to uninstall due to a bug in the versions of InstallShield used.

You most likely have this problem if you receive the following message while attempting to uninstall:

Setup failed to run installation

To determine which version of InstallShield resides on a given machine

1. Navigate to

   C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\engine\6\Intel 32

2. Select ikernel.exe and right-click to display Properties.
3. Select the Version tab to locate the version of the InstallShield engine residing on the machine.

You can prevent this behavior from occurring when uninstalling Siebel 6 by downloading a utility created for this purpose from the InstallShield Web site.

The utility guarantees that the target machine for uninstallation has a proper and known state. It renames the current InstallShield engine and removes associated registry entries from the target machine, so that when Siebel eBusiness Applications uninstallation starts, the program validates that the correct InstallShield engine version (6.0.x) exists in that location.

NOTE:  Siebel Systems takes no responsibility for the state if a client machine is left after running this utility. This utility is provided by InstallShield to address a known behavior caused by that vendor's product defect. Therefore, use this utility with discretion and make sure that you thoroughly test it before you distribute it to your users.

You may use this utility on any of the following occasions:

• Prior to installing Siebel eBusiness Applications, release 6.x products (when you are upgrading from Siebel Enterprise Applications, release 4.x or earlier to release 7).
• Prior to uninstalling Siebel eBusiness Applications, release 6.x products.
• Prior to installing Siebel eBusiness Applications, release 6.x patches.

Another way of solving this problem is to install a product that uses the desired version of InstallShield.

Uninstallation Manager Anomaly

Due to a known anomaly on Windows NT 4.0, the Uninstall Manager occasionally does not appear under Add/Remove Programs. If this occurs, refer to Alert 143 on Siebel SupportWeb.