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Dameware Remote Everywhere (DRE) agent won't reinstall using the same MSI installer

DRE agent reinstallation fails using the same MSI installer.

First published date

6/19/2025 1:08 AM

Last published date

6/19/2025 1:08 AM

Overview

In some cases, you need to reinstall the DRE agent for some reason, but after uninstalling it and running the same MSI installer, you cannot. When you run the same installer, it opens and then closes. When you download another agent MSI installer then it will work again

This applies to the following:

  • The DRE agent was installed using the MSI installer
  • Uninstalled the DRE agent using the uninstall command [uninstall.exe] /S /R
  • Uninstalled the DRE agent manually from the Control Panel

Product section

Dameware Remote Everywhere

Cause

This behavior is expected because the MSI installer creates a corresponding registry entry on the system during installation. 
This entry is used by Windows Installer to manage the application’s state.
If the application is uninstalled using a method that doesn’t clean up the registry entry, such as a custom uninstall.exe or non-standard PDQ script, Windows still considers the MSI as installed.

As a result, any attempt to reinstall using the same MSI fails, since the system believes it’s already present.

Resolution

To prevent this issue, we recommend using the MSI commands to remove MSI files.

msiexec.exe /qn /x "Path to the MSI installer.msi"

Notes: Do not use the 'uninstall.exe' within the DRE installation folder.