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Q212854: SMSINST: Overwritten Files Are Not Restored During Uninstall

Article: Q212854
Product(s): Microsoft Systems Management Server
Version(s): 2.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbinterop kbClient kbConfig kbServer kbsms200 kbsms200bug kbAdvertisement kbPackage kbs
Last Modified: 22-MAR-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Systems Management Server Installer version 2.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When you uninstall a program created by Microsoft Systems Management Server
(SMS) Installer, the installer does not restore any files that were overwritten
by the initial installation.

CAUSE
=====

This behavior is by design. For example:

Consider a user who installs program A with version 1.0 of a DLL, and then
installs program B with version 1.1 of the same DLL. The user later installs
program C with version 1.5 of the same DLL, and then decides to uninstall
program B. If SMS Installer were to restore the version of the DLL that it
overwrote while installing program B, it would restore version 1.0, which would
likely break program C because program C requires version 1.5 of the DLL.

It is recommended that you configure SMS Installer to back up overwritten files.
Doing so allows these files to be preserved in a separate directory, from which
they can be manually restored if necessary.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To learn more about creating backup copies of replaced files, refer to the SMS
Installer online Help.


Additional query words: prodsms

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Keywords          : kbinterop kbClient kbConfig kbServer kbsms200 kbsms200bug kbAdvertisement kbPackage kbsmsInst kbsmsUtil kbSoftwareDist smsinst 
Technology        : kbSMSSearch kbSMSI200
Version           : :2.0
Issue type        : kbprb
Solution Type     : kbnofix

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