Unable to Uninstall Visual COBOL 6 installation

Hello all.

I'm preparing for a future rollout of Visual COBOL on a few machines. Most of them were able to successfully uninstall the old version of Visual COBOL, but two machines have done their best to spite me.

If I attempt to uninstall it on the machine interactively (physically or Remote Desktop), the uninstaller will appear for a brief second, then close itself without showing any content besides a white screen inside the window.

If I attempt to uninstall it silently using the "/uninstall /quiet" flags, I get no output and a return code of -1073740940, which as far as I'm aware doesn't have an equivalent error message to interpret.

Are there any tricks or processes I should complete to uninstall it?

Thank you!

Try rebooting your machine as having pending Windows Updates can cause problems. Then try repairing Visual COBOL from Control Panel prior to uninstalling and see if that makes a difference. 

There should also be a log file for the uninstall that is generated in your %TEMP% directory that starts with Micro_Focus_Visual_COBOL. More information might be found in this file.

Hi Chris,

I found these logs exactly where you mentioned. However, they don't provide any kind of indication or error; there's only verbose output from the installer showing that variables have been set. Here's the logs I see:

[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i001: Burn v3.14.0.1703, Windows v10.0 (Build 19044: Service Pack 0), path: C:\\ProgramData\\Package Cache\\{12d958e4-6841-4e94-943b-6862ced5ef90}\\vcvs2019_60.exe
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'ProductRevision' to value '6.0.00245'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'InstallFolder' to value '[ProgramFilesFolder]Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'RumbaCheckbox' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'RumbaCheckboxState' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'RumbaLabelState' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'EclipseLabelState' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'FolderEditbox2State' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'BrowseButton2State' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'ignorechecks' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'skipsafenet' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'skipusagelogger' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'skipmstools' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'downloadmstools' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'installmstools' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'novsix' to value '0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'accepteula' to value 'no'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'VS2017ValidInstance' to value '1'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing numeric variable 'VS2019ValidInstance' to value '1'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'DockerService' to value 'SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\cexecsvc'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable '32BitOSEclipseMsgState' to value 'disable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'VS2017HelpMsgState' to value 'enable'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'VS2019ValidCheck' to value 'yes'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'UpgradeRegKey' to value 'SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\4.0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'NucleusRegKey2' to value 'SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\4.0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Initializing string variable 'NucleusRegKey' to value 'SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\6.0'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i009: Command Line: '"-burn.clean.room=C:\\ProgramData\\Package Cache\\{12d958e4-6841-4e94-943b-6862ced5ef90}\\vcvs2019_60.exe" -burn.filehandle.attached=556 -burn.filehandle.self=572 /uninstall /quiet'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleLog' to value 'C:\\Users\\cis12\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Micro_Focus_Visual_COBOL_for_Visual_Studio_2019_20220406101032.log'
[1034:0740][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleManufacturer' to value 'Micro Focus'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Running detect BA function
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'InstallFolder' to value 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'FolderEditboxState' to value 'disable'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'BrowseButtonState' to value 'disable'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'HFDetected' to value '0'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable 'HFDetected' to value '1'
[1034:183C][2022-04-06T10:10:32]i000: Setting string variable '32BitOSEclipseMsgState' to value 'disable'

Is there anything specific I should do in this situation?

Did you try the reboot and repair of Visual COBOL that I had previously mentioned? Same problem after that?

Do you have any Patch Updates installed for the Visual COBOL product? You might try uninstalling them first and see if that helps. You can see the updates under Control Panel-->Programs and Features-->View Installed updates.

If this doesn't help I would suggest opening up a support incident with Customer Care.

Hi Chris,

1. I went to Control Panel in an attempt to repair the Visual COBOL installation, but the "Modify" button (which usually launches the repair wizard for apps in my experience) is disabled in the Apps section of Windows settings. Unfortunately, this version of Windows 10 doesn't have the apps section in Control Panel anymore.

2. I don't have any patch updates installed.

3. Do I need a support contract to open an incident with Customer Care? I'm waiting for a response from our education program coordinator for software licenses, so I'm not 100% certain whether or not we're set up for support cases.

What edition of Windows 10 are you using?
What edition of Visual Studio are you using?

You do need a support contract in order to open up an incident with Customer Care. The instructors can normally do that though. 

Are the Visual COBOL project templates still displayed if you open Visual Studio and select New->Project?

From an administrative command prompt, with the installer file vcvs2019_60.exe in the current directory, can you please try to issue the following command?

start /wait vcvs2019_60.exe /uninstall

Do you get any additional error messages?

Hi Chris,

I'm having a similar issue as stated in the original question, but I no longer have vcvs2019_60.exe on my machine. Any tips on where to proceed from here?

Hi Ross,

So you have Visual COBOL 6.0 installed and you cannot uninstall it is that correct?
What error are you receiving?

Do you have both Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022 installed on this machine?

If you do have both then you might try the workaround suggested in this KB article:

Installing EDVS2019_70.exe, a blank window pops up and then disappears. (microfocus.com)

It refers to Enterprise Developer but it also applies to Visual COBOL.

It also refers to installing Visual COBOL but equally applies to uninstalling.

Thanks

1. The only remnants of Visual COBOL 6.0 that I have on my machine is located when in the Control Panel, but when I select uninstall, a blank window appears and immediately disappears with no other information, and Visual COBOL 6.0 remains in the Control Panel. My goal is to get Visual COBOL 8.0 installed and have it working with Visual Studio 2022 but it says I need 6.0 uninstalled first, so you can see how it has become a bit of a loop for me.

2. I previously had Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022, but I have since uninstalled VS2019, which is when this issue arose in the first place.

1. The only remnants of Visual COBOL 6.0 that I have on my machine is located when in the Control Panel, but when I select uninstall, a blank window appears and immediately disappears with no other information, and Visual COBOL 6.0 remains in the Control Panel. My goal is to get Visual COBOL 8.0 installed and have it working with Visual Studio 2022 but it says I need 6.0 uninstalled first, so you can see how it has become a bit of a loop for me.

2. I previously had Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022, but I have since uninstalled VS2019, which is when this issue arose in the first place.

So you uninstalled Visual Studio 2019 before uninstalling Visual COBOL 6.0 from it, is that correct?

Does a Repair of Visual COBOL give you the same results as the uninstall?

Have you tried the workaround of copying the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Configuration.Native.dll that is mentioned in the article and then trying to uninstall 6.0 from Control Panel?

I am having this exact same issue. I had 2019 VS AND 2022 VS on my laptop. 2019 had the Micro Focus with it. I uninstalled VS 2019 BEFORE I tried to uninstall Micro Focus. After 2019 was removed from my computer, I went to my control panel to uninstall Micro Focus and it pops up a blank window that immediately disappears and nothing else happens. And it won't let me add Micro Focus to my VS 2022 because it says I have to remove it from 2019 first. 

The uninstall of the COBOL product will be trying to update VS. As you have already uninstalled that it will not be able to. Have you tried using the utility I suggested a few weeks ago ?

The uninstall of the COBOL product will be trying to update VS. As you have already uninstalled that it will not be able to. Have you tried using the utility I suggested a few weeks ago ?

I was able to click the download button again and it asked if I wanted to repair so I clicked yes. It is installed now but now it wants an authorization code that it says was emailed. I can't find that anywhere. How do I get that?

Perhaps the email went into your Spam folder?

I can provide you with a license for the Personal Edition product. Please email me at chris.glazier@microfocus.com.

Perhaps the email went into your Spam folder?

I can provide you with a license for the Personal Edition product. Please email me at chris.glazier@microfocus.com.

Hey Chris, I was emailed a license, similar to Jessica, but it seems to have only lasted a couple months? Is there a way that I would be able to get a longer license seeing as I'm a student? or is there a way for me to pay for one? I'm now unable to use Visual COBOL with Visual Studio, but I need access to it until the end of February at least.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Did you try the reboot and repair of Visual COBOL that I had previously mentioned? Same problem after that?

Do you have any Patch Updates installed for the Visual COBOL product? You might try uninstalling them first and see if that helps. You can see the updates under Control Panel-->Programs and Features-->View Installed updates.

If this doesn't help I would suggest opening up a support incident with Customer Care.