How to Prevent Windows Installer From Removing a File on Uninstall

Here are a couple of approaches that'll keep that pesky Windows Installer away from files you don't want uninstalled when an uninstall script is run. Hope you find this info useful.

To modify the Component Table, follow these steps:

1. Select the Component Table from the Tables tab in Setup Editor, and highlight the Attributes column of the component that is to be left on the machine during the uninstall.
2. Change the value in the Attributes column to 16 for the component to keep during the uninstall. Press the Tab key to update the field.

To modify the Component details, follow these steps:

1. Determine which component contains the file in question; go to the Setup Editor and click on the Components tab.
2. Locate the appropriate component, right-click on it and select Details.
3. In the Component Details dialog mark the "Leave installed on uninstall" check box.

Both of these approaches will leave the entire contents of a component installed after an uninstall. To leave just a single file installed after uninstall, you may need to create a new component (which would contain only the file in question) and follow the steps above to flag it as permanent.