Issues removing installed apps

[tobycarver]

Hello - I made the mistake the other day of removing an app I wanted to manage with Chocolatey. I was in the main Chocolatey for LabTech screen and double-clicked on an approved application. The problem was I couldn't remember which one it was, so I clicked "Add Common Apps To List". All the apps I'd had before were duplicated and some of them took a default status of being installed automatically. So, I had autohotkey, ccleaner, mozilla, etc., installed on a bunch of computers. I'm not trying to go through and remove them from the applications through the Chocolatey client interface. I tried sorting by application then clicking Uninstall on a bunch. This will eventually cause the area displaying the systems with installed apps to get a large red 'X' through it. I have to close the Chocolatey client dialog again, sort and begin uninstalling. It was bad enough, I am simply uninstalling an app and waiting for it to complete. The only problem is, now the entire LT application is locking up and I have to end task on LT, then relaunch it.

Perhaps this is already in place (I can't find an updated manual on all of the feature in Chocolatey and how to use them), but it would be great if an app is excluded from being installed if it were uninstalled if already installed. Or, perhaps making that a feature so it can be uninstalled during a maintenance run of the server. Anything I can do here? I have a bunch more systems and apps to remove. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[tobycarver]

I thought this site was for support of Chocolatey for Labtech? I paid to use this software, so if this isn't where I'm supposed to go to for support, then it would be nice to know where I should go.

[Cubert]

Toby,

You are in the right place, I must apologize I been bouncing around the support area and missed responding to your post.

Here are some basic steps to remove software in bulk.

First of I would set all system to "Auto Uninstall" first before proceeding as seen here in pic 1 at the client level. Make all systems "green" for on.

choco1.png (199.35 KiB) Viewed 18665 times

Then I would use the mass uninstall tool to remove the apps from the systems. This may take a bit so if LT seems to "lock up" just let it sit for a bit as it is your LT console chugging away at the process.

choco2.png (213.44 KiB) Viewed 18663 times

Let me know if this helped any.


I am really surprised that you added a new app after enabling a client a the app went out as enabled for install. By default we should disabling any new apps added. But as I say that I wonder if that applies the the app builder list. I will check into that and confirm if that is the case. I know its not on the add of a single app manually.

Cubert


P.s if the app is not in the app list then add it manually and verify that it is in fact disabled at the client level. Then it will be available in app list to remove. Once you have app gone from all then remove from approved list.

Do not use the app builder button as you might again spawn a install and we do not want that. You can how ever turn off chocolatey master switch , use the app builder tool, remove the ones you do not need, verify the disabled are set at the clients level and then turn on chocolatey master switch again. This will prevent any issues with mass app installs.

[tobycarver]

Thanks for the information. I'm removing things as I get time and using your steps. It appears to be working, but I have a few questions.

- If I have auto-uninstall enabled, when is an app uninstalled?
- What do Checksums and Global Confirmations do?

- Performing the mass uninstalls, I've noticed some strange things happening within the "Installed Applications" screen. Please look at the attached screenshot and let me know what you think and how to remove the items listed. It's more than one computer that this is occurring with.

Thanks for the clarification on everything thus far.

[Cubert]

Thanks for the information. I'm removing things as I get time and using your steps. It appears to be working, but I have a few questions.

- If I have auto-uninstall enabled, when is an app uninstalled?
- What do Checksums and Global Confirmations do?

- Performing the mass uninstalls, I've noticed some strange things happening within the "Installed Applications" screen. Please look at the attached screenshot and let me know what you think and how to remove the items listed. It's more than one computer that this is occurring with.

Thanks for the clarification on everything thus far.

That will happen from time to time and should auto clear shortly after next maintenance cycle runs.

What happens is we get back some odd data from end system during versioning of software inventories. on the next request this should clear for agent.

[tobycarver]

I upped the maintenance maintenance cycle and that appears to be clearing things more quickly. Some of these anomalous entries have been there for a while.

I have some follow-up questions:

- If I have auto-uninstall enabled, when is an app uninstalled?
- What do Checksums and Global Confirmations do?

[Cubert]

The auto uninstall option does not uninstall a product, if a package has no uninstaller with it then this features will use the registry to track the packages installed items and will attempt when you tell it to... to uninstall it via Chocolatey Framework.


You do not need to have this option {ON} during a install for it to work when uninstalling. If you go to remove a package from a system , turn this on before doing the uninstall will give you an extra method to uninstall if package is weak...



Checksum, verifies packages.

[benf]

Hi all, for some reason my chocolatey main panel was not set to update. We turned it back on, and it pushed out a bunch of apps that we didnt want to across the board.

So I found this thread and went to a site in LT where we deployed software by accident. I disabled it in the Client Configuration, but when I goto system options its blank, and when I goto System Software the Approved Application pull down is blank... I manually typed DropBox and all systems and Im waiting to see what happens.


Any help appreciated, i have a couple of upset clients that just got dropbox , filezilla , malwarebytes and firefox on all their desktops

[Cubert]

Hmm, you had installs turned on, had apps in approved apps list and all was working fine but then you turned on updates and it went and installed software where it was not approved?

Not sure that's possible, can you post the logs for installer, maintenance and updates in a zip for me for days before to day after event here?

Let's see what went on.

[benf]

What happened was for some reason everytime I go into the Chocolatey from the main page the Turn On/off application installer is Off.

I had added approved applications on the global side, and somewhere along the line they got pushed down to the client as approved. I guess I didnt understand the ramifications but whats odd is when we tested it nothing changed. Probably because the config is off all the time?

Im sure we are using it as expected, I dont know how/why the app installer on/off was off, or if it should be. I think all we want to do is setup approved apps in the main setup. Goto each client approve apps and then have it auto-update moving forward.

So now I am just looking to uninstall all the apps globally or for each client area but that doesnt seem to be available / working. Im testing it now by manually putting in the apps to remove.

Where do I get the logs from on the server? and i will send them up. thanks!