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"Unknown Publisher" on UAC Prompt when Uninstalling from Add/Remove Programs with a Signed Installation Package

Summary

This article provides information regarding a digital signature error that occurs when uninstalling a signed installation package.

Symptoms

This information only applies to a Basic MSI Project.

During installation of a digitally signed Windows Installer (MSI) package on UAC (User Account Control) prompts that appear during the installation process for the signed install contain the correct publisher information based on the digital signature. When attempting to uninstall from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, the UAC elevation prompts contain "Unknown publisher" instead of the appropriate publisher information contained in the digital signature. Checking the signature on the cached MSI package located in %SystemRoot%\Installer indicates that the signature is invalid.

Cause

There are 2 possible known causes for this issue:

  • Only the setup is signed. When an uninstall is initiated from ARP, windows uses the cached MSI. If the MSI is not signed then no publisher is known.

  • On Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Installer caches a copy of the MSI package in the installer folder during the installation process. In an effort to reduce the size consumed by the copied MSI, Windows Installer removes some data from the cached copy of the MSI . As a result, the embedded digital signature becomes invalid. This is a known issue with Windows Installer on Windows Vista platforms.

Resolution


When signing the release make sure that you select:
  • Sign Output Files = Setup.exe and Windows Installer Package

If installing on Windows Vista there is no known solution as this is an issue with WIndows Installer on that specific OS.

Workaround

At this time, no known workarounds exist for this issue.


Additional Information

More information on UAC and digital signatures can be found in the following articles:

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"Unknown Publisher" on UAC Prompt when Uninstalling from Add/Remove Programs with a Signed Installation Package