Installed LabVIEW with NIPM - can I delete the NI *.msi Files in Windows\Installer

[code-lux]

I Installed a new version of LabVIEW with NIPM - can I now just delete the old NI *.msi Files in Windows\Installer or is a more complicated procedure needed for a save removal of obsolete msi Files?

(I´m runing out of SSD space on my PXI, as what NI sells as "80 GB (or Greater)2.5 in SATA Ext. Temp, 24/7 SSD" has in fact only 61 GB of usable space 😞)

[Scott_Richardson]

NI currently supports two installer technologies, an older one that is MSI-based and supports customers creating MSI based installers with products such as LabVIEW's Installer specification. The newer one is package based and supports customers creating packages, feeds and also installers, which LabVIEW's Package specification supports.

To support both technologies, NI installs its software as packages that contain MSIs, so NI caches both the MSIs and the parent packages.

The primary purpose of this caching is to support installer-builder features in products like LabVIEW, so deleting files from these directories will inhibit your ability to create installers that include NI software components.

• The %ProgramData%\National Instruments\MDF\ProductCache\ directory contains the installed software MSI related files.
• The %ProgramData%\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\packages\ directory contains the packages that were installed. As of NIPM 2022 Q4 (22.8), NIPM will remove packages from the cache when they are uninstalled from the system.

Here is an older KB on these caches: Deleting Product Installer Files That Have Been Copied to My Computer.

Notes:

• NIPM cannot perform repair operations on a package if the package is missing from the cache, but NIPM will attempt to download the package if it can connect to ni.com.
• I am aware of known issue where NI Package Builder does not properly re-download packages and errors a package is installed but is missing from the "packages" cache directory.
• NIPM also uses the %ProgramData%\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\downloads\ directory in some cases to store packages downloaded when building feeds and installers, so this can be cleared as well.

[code-lux]

Scott, thanks for explaining.

I have in the C:\Windows\Installer Folder a lot more .msi Files from NI than in the MDF\ProductCache or shown in the NIPM as installed. Why? Is this OK? If not, how can it be fixed?

[Scott_Richardson]

Sorry that I missed that you were specifically asking about that folder in my first response. The files in C:\Windows\Installer folder are managed by the OS. If you have a fairly fresh system where you have not done a lot of uninstall and upgrade operations, I would expect that the files in that directory are required by the OS.

Everything that I have read suggests that these files should NOT be manually removed, and that MSI uninstall operations should remove associated files from the folder, but I have never validated that. I am not aware of any recommended tool to potentially clean the C:\Windows\Installer folder.

[WesW]

No, I would strongly discourage removing the .MSI files in the Windows\Installer folder, as those files are used by the OS as part of its installer bookkeeping. Most notably, deleting those files could cause future upgrades or installations to fail, as these files contain the instructions for doing so! Also, these files don't take too much space, as they typically only contain the installation instructions, and the actual payload of DLLs\VIs\EXEs aren't stored there.

[code-lux]

All .msi files in MDF\ProductCache are also found in Windows\Installer. They just have a different Filename (some HEX Number) (just hover over the Filename or use a tool like InstalledPackagesView.exe to get descriptions).

But as there are more .msi files from NI in Windows\Installer than in MDF\ProductCache I wonder if I can uninstall them (not delete!) manually by right click menu as they are not (or ev. no longer) shown as installed in NIPM?

So my question is: should they be shown as installed in NIPM and if yes how to get them back in NIPM?

[Scott_Richardson]

You asked "I wonder if I can uninstall them (not delete!) manually..." We do not know. In general, we let the OS manage these files.

You asked "Should they be shown as installed in NIPM and if yes how to get them back in NIPM?" As long as someone has not tried to uninstall products with some MSI cleaning tool, and if the products are actually installed, they should appear in NIPM.

From your perspective for these MSIs, what are some of the products and versions do you think these MSIs are associated with, do you think that these products should be listed as installed, and are there files still installed that you think are associated with these products?