How to configure Inno Setup to uninstall everything?

Question

I am new to Inno Setup. Stuck on one issue ~ how to configure the uninstall piece to remove all files, folders, subfolders, and even new files/folders etc. created by applic

Answer 1

I think the recommended approach is to specify what to remove in the uninstall section. The reasoning is that what if for whatever reason the user decided to put their own files in your installation directory that they didn't want removed, or saved data that they might want to keep around (maybe they uninstall is to install a newer version?)

That being said, I don't know offhand what the script is, but if you use ISTool (highly recommend) just got to the Uninstall Delete section and add things you want removed. It should present all the possible options in a nice GUI and generate the script for you.

Edit: An example from the Inno Setup documentation:

[UninstallDelete]
Type: files; Name: "{win}\MYPROG.INI"

But they strongly you don't do something like

[UninstallDelete]
Type: files; Name: "{app}\*.*"

NOTE: Don't be tempted to use a wildcard here to delete all files in the {app} directory. I strongly recommend against doing this for two reasons. First, users usually don't appreciate having their data files they put in the application directory deleted without warning (they might only be uninstalling it because they want to move it to a different drive, for example). It's better to leave it up to the end users to manually remove them if they want. Also, if the user happened to install the program in the wrong directory by mistake (for example, C:\WINDOWS) and then went to uninstall it there could be disastrous consequences. So again, DON'T DO THIS!