Hello,
i'm responsible for the install routine of our porducts in our company. We used to install the SQL Server 2008 Express with our setup. We also checked registry entries to detect if the SQL Server 2008 Express with an specific instance was installed. When we run the uninstall for our programm, we also uninstalled auf instance. If it was the only instance wihtin the SQL Server the hole SQL Server was uninstalled. This works like expected.
Now we want to change to the SQL Server 2014 Express. The installation succeeds and everything works fine. But when we uninstall the SQL Server 2014 leaves a lot of entries in the registry. Especially the entry for the version number:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Wow6432Node\\Microsoft\\Microsoft SQL Server\\120\\SQLServer2014\\CurrentVersion\Version
This makes it hard to detect if the SQL Server 2014 is installed on the system, because at the uninstall of the SQL Server 2008 these entries where removed like expected. Ok i can check some folders and files if they are available, but this seems not to be the right way.
Is this a bug, or are there any reasons why the registry entries are not removed after the uninstall?
Kind regards
Christian