Full Silent Uninstall of Tomcat on Windows

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If you navigate to the Tomcat folder you will find an Uninstall item, click it. When I did this step it told me that I needed to uninstall it from the "Add or Remove Programs" application in Windows.

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Andy Madge
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Andy Madge

Updated on September 18, 2022

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  • Andy Madge
    Andy Madge over 1 year

    When running the silent uninstall command:

    "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.5\Uninstall.exe" /S -ServiceName="Tomcat8"
    

    Tomcat is uninstalled but it leaves behind a bunch of files in the conf, logs and webapps folders.

    When uninstalling via Windows Program & Features, the GUI uninstaller shows a prompt asking whether to delete these extra files/folders.

    Is there an argument/option that will delete these files with the silent uninstall?

    I've looked through the Tomcat docs but there is no mention of the silent uninstall. I've even looked through the Tomcat source code, but I can't find any clues.

    This page suggests that Tomcat uses NSIS Installer but the docs aren't helpful.

    I'm trying to find the answer for both Tomcat 8.5 and 7.0 if possible.

    • Andy Madge
      Andy Madge over 6 years
      This section in the source seems to suggest that the only supported option is -ServiceName= so that may mean what I'm asking for doesn't exist
    • spacenomyous
      spacenomyous over 6 years
      I didn't see anything on the documentation either. I found references to people using Uninstall scripts, which probably do the cleanup tasks, like folder deletion separately
    • Andy Madge
      Andy Madge over 6 years
      That makes sense, it looking like I'll need to go the same way
    • Bill_Stewart
      Bill_Stewart over 4 years
      IMO the uninstall process should not delete files it did not install. If the admin that's doing the uninstall wants to do that later, that's fine, but it should not be part of the uninstall process.