Using WMI to remotely uninstall applications remotely

Question

I am trying to write a mini w32 executable file to remotely uninstall an application using WMI.

I can list all installed applications using this code below, but I could not find a way to remove the application remotely via WMI and C #

I know that I can do the same with msiexec as a process, but I want to solve it with WMI, if possible ...

Thanks Cem

static void RemoteUninstall(string appname) { ConnectionOptions options = new ConnectionOptions(); options.Username = "administrator"; options.Password = "xxx"; ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope("\\\\192.168.10.111\\root\\cimv2", options); scope.Connect(); ObjectQuery query = new ObjectQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Product"); ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query); ManagementObjectCollection queryCollection = searcher.Get(); foreach (ManagementObject m in queryCollection) { // Display the remote computer information Console.WriteLine("Name : {0}", m["Name"]); if (m["Name"] == appname) { Console.WriteLine(appname + " found and will be uninstalled... but how"); //need to uninstall this app... } } } 

Answer 1

Check out WMI Code Creator (a free tool from Microsoft) - it can generate WMI code for you in a variety of languages, including C #.

Here is an example illustrating the use of the Win32_Product.Uninstall method. You need to know the GUID, name and version of the application that you want to remove, since they are the key properties of the Win32_Product class:

 ... ManagementObject app = new ManagementObject(scope, "Win32_Product.IdentifyingNumber='{99052DB7-9592-4522-A558-5417BBAD48EE}',Name='Microsoft ActiveSync',Version='4.5.5096.0'", null); ManagementBaseObject outParams = app.InvokeMethod("Uninstall", null); Console.WriteLine("The Uninstall method result: {0}", outParams["ReturnValue"]); 

If you have partial information about the application (for example, only name or name and version), you can use the SELECT query to get the corresponding Win32_Process object:

 ... SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("Win32_Product", "Name='Microsoft ActiveSync'"); EnumerationOptions enumOptions = new EnumerationOptions(); enumOptions.ReturnImmediately = true; enumOptions.Rewindable = false; ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query, options); foreach (ManagementObject app in searcher.Get()) { ManagementBaseObject outParams = app.InvokeMethod("Uninstall", null); Console.WriteLine("The Uninstall method result: {0}", outParams["ReturnValue"]); }