Remove non-windows MSP packages with powershell - powershell

Question

I'm trying to remove a Non-Microsoft MSP from a server that is running Win2k3 or Win2k8. The Update does show up in the Add/Remove programs when selecting "View Installed Updates". However I can't seem to find a way to get the MSP GUID.
I planned on using
msiexec /i {GUID-OF-PRODUCT} MSIPATCHREMOVE={GUID_OF_PATCH} /qb
that was found in this article: how to remove the Patch from console
However, I don't have a way to get the Patch GUID from the command line. Has anyone else been able to do something like this? There's plenty of ways to do this for Microsoft Patches, but since this is non-Microsoft, I'm hoping it's still possible.
Thanks,
Greg

Answer 1

You can use the Windows Installer com object to enumerate the patches.
Check out this article. It doesn't do exactly what you need, but it provides the comObject.types.ps1xml file you will need:
http://www.snowland.se/2010/02/21/read-msi-information-with-powershell/
Then you can do this to get the patch:
$installer_obj = New-Object -com WindowsInstaller.Installer;
$patches = $installer_obj.InvokeParamProperty("PatchesEx", "Product-Code-GUID", "s-1-1-0", 7, 15);
Product-Code-GUID is the GUID for the product you are interested in. I prefer to enumerate a list of products as well, and get the GUID programmatically based on the human readable name (i.e. the one that is displayed in Add/Remove Programs).
$installer_obj = New-Object -com WindowsInstaller.Installer;
$all_products = $installer_obj.GetProperty("Products");
foreach($product_code in $all_products) {
$product_name = $installer_obj.InvokeParamProperty("ProductInfo", $product_code, "ProductName")
if($product_name -eq "MySQL Server 5.1") {
$interesting_product_code = $product_code;
}
}
$patches = $installer_obj.InvokeParamProperty("PatchesEx", $interesting_product_code, "s-1-1-0", 7, 15);
Either route you take, now you just need to loop through the $patches and call msiexec from the command line with the proper arguments (if you are opting to use a literal string for the $interesting_product_code, just replace the variable and concatenation with the literal string GUID.):
foreach($patch in $patches) {
$patch_code = $patch.GetProperty("PatchCode");
$argument_list = "/I" + $interesting_product_code + " MSIPATCHREMOVE=$patch_code /qb /norestart";
Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList $argument_list -Wait;
}
Here is a reference to the Windows Installer com object. You can do some other fun stuff with it too:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa369432%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Hope that helps,
Aaron