Uninstall WinRAR through GPO?

Question

I wrote a script that I have added in as a computer based policy to run at startup. This script checks which version of WinRAR (x86/x64) is installed and runs the correct uninstall.exe with the /s flag (uninstall.exe /s) for a silent uninstall.

The policy works and the uninstaller runs, however it does not uninstall properly, the shortcuts, task bar items and start menu items for WinRAR all stay in place. The files in Program Files are gone though. When I change this to a user based policy the uninstall.exe /s works properly and all the shortcuts are gone as they should be. However, my typical users do not have the administrative rights to run this uninstall.exe. So it only works right if logging into an admin account since the user policy runs with the users permissions.

Any ideas how to make this work?

Answer 1

Use the script you have to remove the software.

Create another machine script which will remove shortcuts from your local administrator's profile. If the software adds shortcuts to 'all users' , and/or 'default user', you'll want your this script to remove those as well. Compile a list of all the shortcuts the versions make.

Use another script, to run when users log on, to remove the shortcuts from non-admin user profiles.