topic Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall in Workspace ONE Discussions

Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

FedericoLillacc — Fri, 29 May 2020 13:14:13 GMT

Hello,

If a user is local admin of a Windows 10 device, is there a way to prevent the Intelligent Hub from being uninstalled?

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

RogerDeane — Fri, 29 May 2020 18:35:16 GMT

You can achieve this by simply removing the registry key which displays the uninstall option for that app. By removing the reg key end-users will not see the AirWatch Agent in the list of apps to remove.

You can't prevent them from deleting it but you can make it much harder for them to find it. The below information will remove the Hub from the Add/Remove control panel. The user would have to know how to run the msiexec command at the bottom of the post.

You can use the following script. (.bat) The value for the ID should be {A7C474DC-3891-F2BF-A22A-4FDB9BB65D38}, this script can be vastly improved to use variables etc and to determine if the device is x64 or x32.

This is skeleton skeleton code; not production ready.

wmic product where name="Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub Installer" get IdentifyingNumber

REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{A7C474DC-3891-F2BF-A22A-4FDB9BB65D38} /f

REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{A7C474DC-3891-F2BF-A22A-4FDB9BB65D38} /f

The Agent will auto uninstall when you push the un-enroll command via the console, if you need to remove the agent from the device then just use this command:

msiexec /x {A7C474DC-3891-F2BF-A22A-4FDB9BB65D38}

Roger

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

FedericoLillacc — Sat, 30 May 2020 17:32:56 GMT

Hello Roger, many thanks for your suggestion!

I'll develop a script and then I'll post the results here, maybe it could be helpful in the future.

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

FedericoLillacc — Sun, 31 May 2020 08:13:11 GMT

Here's the script I developed following Roger's suggestion: WorkspaceONE/hide-installer.ps1 at master · tsmagnum/WorkspaceONE · GitHub

I used PowerShell. The logic is very simple: we look for the WS1 installer and, if present, we will delete the key.

We also check if the OS is x86 or x64 to locate the right key.

I included in the script PowerShell's common parameters, so you can run it using "-debug" in a PowerShell console to troubleshoot the execution in case of problem.

I deployed it to my clients using a product with a Files/Actions component, downloading the script in C:\Temp, executing it and then deleting it after the execution.

Please test the script before deploying it in production environments.

Thanks again to RogerDeane !

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

AaronWhittaker — Sun, 31 May 2020 23:57:38 GMT

Thanks for the script but if I can make a suggestion.

Microsoft don't recommend that you remove the entire key for an application that is still installed. Instead, if you remove the string 'UninstallString' from inside that key it will still appear in Add/Remove Programs but it wont have an uninstall option. Possibly even remove the 'ModifyPath' string as well if it is there.

Also if you remove the entire key, it will no longer appear in your installed apps report.

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

FedericoLillacc — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 04:24:55 GMT

Hi, thanks for your suggestion Aaron.

I tried deleting only the two string values suggested, but we have only a partial success: actually the uninstall option becomes grayed out and unavailable in "Apps and Features", but you are still able to remove the Intelligent Hub from Control Panel > Programs and Features.

Thanks again.

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

AaronWhittaker — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 11:13:43 GMT

So I had a bit of a play around with your script and I have converted it into a WS1 profile if anyone wanted to deploy it. Unlike your script, I don't delete anything but I just rename the 'UninstallString' to "_UninstallString' and that removes the option for it to be removed from Add Remove Programs but can be restored at any time if needed (Sorry that its long but converting to Base64 does that)

Install

<wap-provisioningdoc id="64f1ef71-e69e-440c-a08c-fb66438ef639" name="customprofile">

</characteristic>

</wap-provisioningdoc>

Remove

<wap-provisioningdoc id="f970447c-6190-445c-bda4-f17c611e6a39" name="customprofile">

</characteristic>

</wap-provisioningdoc>

The custom setting needs to target the 'Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub' and not be made atomic.

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

techquisit — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 06:12:05 GMT

Can you please simplify this method in steps?

Re: Windows - prevent Intelligent Hub uninstall

techquisit — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 06:15:07 GMT

''msiexec /x {A7C474DC-3891-F2BF-A22A-4FDB9BB65D38}"

This command wont work, cannot remove the WSOIH app from this, what should i do to remove the application from the workstation?