Uninstall on Windows shows errors and leaves remnants

[dokempf]

The folder can only be fully removed if it is not used by other applications. Maybe the problem is with Jupyter sessions running in the background (you can tell from the increasing port number that they never correctly close).

[dokempf]

[dokempf]

This happens even when uninstall is triggered right after freshly installing. It fails to run the scripts pre_uninstall, rmpath and rmreg. Given that pre_uninstall.bat is empty, I am assuming it is looking in the wrong place for these.

[dokempf]

Looking through the issue list at constructor, it seems like uninstalling is quite a rabbit hole. We might best document a way of doing it manually for users and not rely on the provided uninstall capabilities.

[dokempf]

I digged through the NSIS log and it seems like the actual uninstallation is implemented in a Python script called _nsis, most likely written by constructor. That would actually make it a debuggable thing:

DetailPrint: "Running pre_uninstall scripts..."
SetDetailsPrint: listonly
!insertmacro: _If
!insertmacro: end of _If
Push: "$INSTDIR\pythonw.exe" -E -s "$INSTDIR\Lib\_nsis.py" pre_uninstall
!insertmacro: _Else
!insertmacro: end of _Else
Push: "$INSTDIR\python.exe" -E -s "$INSTDIR\Lib\_nsis.py" pre_uninstall
!insertmacro: _EndIf
!insertmacro: end of _EndIf
Push: Failed to run pre_uninstall

[dokempf]

It turns out that this is only happens, when the uninstallation is triggered from the Apps settings, not if the uninstaller exe is run directly.

[dokempf]

Also, Hannah reports that this is working fine on Windows 10 (Sample Size 1 though).

[dokempf]

Reported this upstream: conda/constructor#799

[dokempf]

Somehow, this seems to be unreproducible outside my Windows laptop.