How to remove a MSI product when the uninstaller says the package is missing?

Question

Could someone please help me to resolve this issue of not being able to find an .msi file during uninstalling Palo Alto GlobalProtect VPN client on Windows 10?

Answer 1

You can enumerate products on your machine with msiinv.exe -P to retrieve the product code and cached database path.

You can then remove the specific item with msiexec.exe /x <productcode> or msiexec.exe /x <path to cached DB>

Example output of msiinv.exe:

MySampleProduct
        Product code:   {5f8bec5d-0196-4e29-9195-292e75ef7619}
        Product state:  (5) Installed.
        Assignment:     per machine
        Package code:   {66ad8add-4b68-4609-9333-802d7668da82}
        Version:        5.1.1
        Publisher:      Example Corporation
        Language:       1033
        Installed from: C:\ProgramData\ExamplePackages\Package,version=1.1.1.0\
            Package:    Example.msi
        Product Icon:   C:\Windows\Installer\{5f8bec5d-0196-4e29-9195-292e75ef7619}\icon.ico
        Instance type:  0
        Local package:  C:\Windows\Installer\24cd76c.msi
        Install date:   2018\03\10

In this case, you could do: msiexec /x {5f8bec5d-0196-4e29-9195-292e75ef7619} or msiexec /x C:\Windows\Installer\24cd76c.msi

Msiinv.exe is available from https://github.com/ZisBoom/MsiInv.exe/blob/master/exe/msiinv.exe (I am original author of the tool.)

Answer 2

Please reinstall it and remove it just after.

As stated by the installer, it's looking for the installer package, that is no longer inside your computer.

The installer seem to have put the msi in a temp folder, the file must have been simply deleted over time.