How to use PDQ to uninstall Autodesk products

Issue:

You would like to uninstall Autodesk products using a batch file with PDQ

Solution:

The following instructions explain how to uninstall products from a deployment using the deployment built-in “Uninstall.txt” file.

1. Go to the location of the deployment and choose the “SMS_SCCM scripts” folder.

2. Open the file <deployment name>_Uninstall.txt in Notepad or a similar text editor.

3. First thing after you open the file in Notepad or a similar text editor, is to save the file as ANSI and rename from .txt to .bat
4. Choose “File”, the choose “Save As…”

5. Go to the directory that you will save the batch file to. Rename the .txt to .bat next to “File name:” and from the “Save as type” choose “All Files (*.*)

6. *This next step is very important* - Next to the “Save” button is “Encoding:”.  From the “Encoding” drop-down choose “ANSI” and then “Save”.

Note that ANSI encoding is required to create an executable batch file

7. Open the created batch file, and enable the uninstallation commands by removing the "::" characters at the beginning of the "::call :funcUninstall" command line for each product that you want to uninstall. For “Manual uninstallation only” you will need to use “Add and Remove programs”

8. After removing the “::” characters at the beginning of the "::call :funcUninstall" command line for each product that you want to uninstall, Click “File” at the top and choose “Save”

9. Open PDQ Deploy and click “New Package”.

10. This next step has 2 different ways to accomplish what we need to do. I will show both ways and you decide the best process for you.

1. Click “New Step” from the ribbon and then choose “Command”

2. Or click on “Steps” under properties and choose “Command”

11. After you click on “Command” add a “Step Title”. Then click on “Insert Batch File…” 

12. Choose the batch file in the saved location from step 6.

13. After clicking on the batch file, click “Open”

14. Under “Details” add the codes 0,1641,3010 in “Success Codes”

Definitions of Success Codes: The Microsoft Installer (.msi) generates return codes (AKA error codes) when a .msi file completes. There are three (3) return codes that are automatically marked as a Success:

15. Click the “Conditions” tab. Then click the drop arrow on the O/S Version to choose the targeted OS versions.

16. Next, choose “Options” and from the “Run As” choose “Deploy User (Interactive).

17. You can now use PDQ Deploy to run the uninstall script.

About the Author

Installation Technical Support Specialist<br><br>Ken Williams has over 20 years of experience as a systems administrator helping organizations with installation, configuration, and maintenance. At IMAGINiT, Ken puts his knowledge of Microsoft, SQL, servers, and Autodesk to work ensuring clients are able to stay up-and-running, install their software easily, and maintain their solutions.

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