JPH10105383A - Uninstalling method for application program, and information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the uninstalling method which can completely restore a system file when an application program is uninstalled. SOLUTION: For installation (steps S1 to S2: NO), a copy from a floppy disk for the application program, etc., is taken (step S3), a reference file is generated on a hard disk (step S4), and information characteristic of the application program is read out of a system file and written in the reference file (step S5), thereby updating the contents of characteristic information in the system file (step S6). When the application program is uninstalled (steps S2: YES), the application program is deleted from the hard disk (step S7), the reference file is read in (step S8) to restore the system file on the basis of the read information (step S9), and the reference file is deleted from the hard disk (step S10).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to the technical field of an application program uninstallation method and an information recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an application program is installed on a personal computer, it is common to make a backup of a system file in order to minimize problems due to the installation or to perform the uninstallation effectively. It is being done.

[0003]

However, according to the conventional method, when a system file is changed by another application program after the installation of the application program, the system file is completely restored only by the backup file. It is impossible.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when installing an application program, a backup file is created by directly copying the contents of a system file immediately before installation, and then the application program is installed. At this time, in the contents of the system file, Ins, which is information unique to the application program, has been rewritten from OFF to ON.
It is stored as F. Next, when another application program is installed, XYZ which is information unique to this application program is set to XYZ =
It is assumed that PQR has been added to the system file. Then, when uninstalling the first installed application program from the state in which the two application programs are installed, the backup is performed to restore the contents of the system file to the state before the installation of the application program. Copy the contents of the file as is to a system file. As a result, the contents of the system file return to the state before the installation of the application program. However, the backup file contains the XYZ = P
Since the information of QR is not written, by copying the backup file to the system file,
This information of XYZ = PQR is deleted, and the system file is not restored.

Accordingly, the present invention is to completely restore a system file while effectively retaining information necessary for another application even if the system file is changed by another application after installation of the application program. It is an object of the present invention to provide an uninstallation method and an information recording medium which can perform the above.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an application program uninstalling method for an application program in which specific information is operated on a system file at the time of installation. Creating a reference file on a storage medium having a file storage function at the time of installation of the application program; and storing the unique file in the system file before the operation for the unique information on the application program. Writing the content of the information to the reference file; deleting the application program file from the storage medium when the application program is uninstalled; Reading the content of the unique information sometimes written to the reference file, and restoring the content of the system file to the state before the installation by writing the read content of the unique information to the system file. And characterized by the following.

According to the method of uninstalling an application program according to claim 1, when the application program is installed, a reference file is created on a storage medium having a file storage function, and the application program is stored in a system file. After writing the contents of the unique information to the reference file, the installation processing is completed by operating the unique information in the system file. Then, when uninstalling the application program, the application program is deleted from the storage medium, and then the unique information written in the reference file is read. Write to system file. Thereby, the content of the unique information in the system file is restored to the state before the installation of the application program, and the information operated at this time is only the unique information, which is necessary for other application programs. Effective information to survive.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method of uninstalling an application program according to the first aspect, after the contents of the system file are restored to the state before the installation, the reference is performed. The method further comprises the step of deleting a file from the storage medium.

According to the application program uninstalling method of the present invention, the content of the unique information read from the reference file is written into the system file as described above, so that the system file is stored before the installation. After restoring the state, the reference file is deleted from the storage medium, so that the free space of the storage medium is increased.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the method for uninstalling an application program according to the first or second aspect, the operation of the unique information on the system file is at least performed. The method includes adding or deleting the unique information or changing the content of the unique information.

According to the method of uninstalling an application program according to the third aspect of the present invention, even if at least either the addition or deletion of the unique information or the change of the content of the unique information is performed, the addition or deletion is performed. Since the content of the unique information before being deleted or changed is written in the reference file, the system file is reliably restored to the state before the installation.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable information recording medium on which an application program is recorded, wherein the specific information is operated on a system file at the time of installation. Means for causing a computer to create a reference file at the time of installation of the application program on a storage medium having a file storage function, and the unique information for the application program. Means for writing the contents of the unique information in the system file before the operation of the application file to the reference file, Means for deleting a file of the application program from the storage medium, means for reading the content of the unique information written in the reference file at the time of the uninstallation, and content of the read unique information to the system file. A program for functioning as a means for restoring the contents of the system file to the state before the installation by writing the program is recorded.

According to the information recording medium of the fourth aspect,
By causing the computer to read the information recording medium, an uninstallation program of the application program is started on the computer, and when the application program is first installed, a reference file is created on a storage medium having a file storage function. . Next, after the content of the unique information for the application program in the system file is written in the reference file, the unique information in the system file is operated to complete the installation process. Then, when the application program is uninstalled, after the application program is deleted from the storage medium, the unique information written in the reference file is read, and the read unique information is read. Is written into the system file. Thereby, the content of the unique information in the system file is restored to the state before the installation of the application program, and the information operated at this time is only the unique information, which is necessary for other application programs. Effective information to survive.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the information recording medium according to the fourth aspect, after the computer restores the contents of the system file to the state before the installation, the computer restores the reference file to the state before the installation. A program for functioning as means for deleting from a storage medium is further recorded.

When the information recording medium according to claim 5 is read by a computer, an uninstallation program of an application program is started on the computer, and the content of the unique information read from the reference file as described above. Is written in the system file, thereby restoring the system file to the state before the installation, and then deleting the reference file from the storage medium, thereby increasing the free space of the storage medium.

The information recording medium according to claim 6 is the information recording medium according to claim 4 or 5,
The means for writing the content of the unique information in the system file to the reference file before the operation of the information unique to the application program is at least before the unique information is added or deleted or the unique information is added. It is characterized by including means for writing the contents before the contents of the information are changed in the reference file.

By causing the computer to read the information recording medium according to claim 6, an uninstallation program of an application program is started on the computer, and at least addition or deletion of the specific information or content of the specific information is performed. Regardless of the change operation, the content of the unique information before the addition, deletion, or change is written to the reference file, so that the system file is reliably restored to the state before the installation.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. (First Embodiment) First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration mainly viewed from software in the embodiment. In the present embodiment, MS-DOS
Alternatively, a case in which an application program is installed and uninstalled using a host device such as a personal computer in which a Windows OS (operation system) is installed will be described. The host device in the present embodiment includes a floppy disk device and a hard disk device as peripheral devices for a motherboard unit having a CPU, a memory, and the like, and the OS is stored on a hard disk.

Next, a case will be described in which two application programs are installed in the system of the present embodiment, and then the application program installed first is uninstalled.

As shown in FIG. 1, a floppy disk A
Stores an application program 1. The application program 1 is a program for operating a peripheral device such as a printer or a scanner from a host device, and includes a user interface program and the like displayed on a display of the host device. It has. Also, on this floppy disk A,
Various driver programs 2 for a printer, a scanner, and the like are also stored. When the application program 1 is started on a host device, an instruction or the like is output from the application program 1 to the driver program 2, thereby Drive devices such as printers and scanners.

As a program for installing the application program 1 in the host device, an installation program 3 is stored in the floppy disk A together with the application program 1 and the driver program 2. The installation program 3 copies the application program 1 and the driver program 2 onto the hard disk C as a storage medium having a file storage function of the host device, and operates the application program 1 and the driver program 2 normally on the OS 4. The contents of the system file 5 are rewritten so as to be able to do so.

As shown in FIG. 1, the contents of the system file 5 are used when the application program 6 stored on the floppy disk B is installed.
Rewritten by the installation program 7, the system file 5 contains both unique information for preparing the operating environment of the application program 1 and specific information for preparing the operating environment of the application program 2.

Therefore, for example, when uninstalling the application program 1, the hard disk C
It is necessary to delete the application program 1 from above and to restore the system file 5 by deleting information specific to the application program 1 from the system file 5. This is not preferable because it not only complicates complicated operations but also causes a risk that necessary information is deleted due to an erroneous operation or the like.

Therefore, conventionally, a method has been adopted in which the contents of the system file 5 before installation are directly copied to a backup file, and the contents of the backup file are copied to the system file 5 at the time of uninstallation.

However, according to this method, if the contents of the system file are further rewritten when another application program is installed, the contents rewritten at that time are not reflected in the backup file. Was copied to the system file, and the rewritten contents were erased.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the reference file 8 is generated as shown in FIG. 1 at the time of installation by the installation program 3, and only the information that is changed during installation among the contents of the system file 5 is stored in the reference file 8. At the time of writing and uninstalling, only the information changed at the time of installation is restored based on the contents of the reference file 8. In the present embodiment, a program for performing such an operation is included in the installation program 3.

Hereinafter, the method of uninstalling the application program 1 in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1, the flowchart of FIG. 2, and the state transition diagram showing the contents of the system file of FIG. In the following description, the installation program 8 stored on the floppy disk B together with the application program 6 is not according to the present invention, but is a general conventional installation program.

To install the application program 1, for example, insert the floppy disk A into the floppy drive A of the host device, enter "A: \ SETUP" on the command line of the OS 4, and execute the install program 3. . Thereby, the installation program 3 is started as shown in FIG.
1) It is determined whether or not to execute uninstallation (step S2). This is because the installation program 3 can be executed from the application program 1 after the installation, as described later. Before the installation, the following processing is performed (Step S).
2; NO). First, the installation program 3 on the floppy disk A is stored in a predetermined directory on the hard disk C.
The driver program 2 is stored in the same manner, and the file is copied from the floppy disk A (step S3).

Next, a new reference file 8 is created on the hard disk C (step S4).
Is selected. The information to be written in the reference file 8 means that the application program 1
4 is information unique to the system file 5 to operate on the system file 4, and is generally written to the system file by an installation program. In the installation program 3 of the present embodiment, information specific to the application program 1 is written as Ins in the system file 5.
Therefore, when the application program 1 is uninstalled, the content of Ins may be set to the state before the application program 1 is installed.
Writing to the reference file 8 (step S5). In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3A, before installing the application program 1,
ns = OFF, and only the information of Ins = OFF is written in the reference file 8.

Then, the content of Ins in the system file 5 is changed from OFF to ON (step S6), and the installation of the application program 1 ends.
At this time, in the contents of the system file 5, only the information Ins = ON is written as shown in FIG. 3B, and only the information Ins = OFF is written in the reference file 8.

Next, let us consider a case where a more general application program 6 is installed with the application program 1 installed as described above. This application program 6
Are stored on the floppy disk B together with the installation program 7, and are installed in the same procedure as in the case of the application program 1 described above. However, since the installation program 7 is not related to the present invention and is a conventional installation program, a reference file is not created, and XYZ = PQR which is information specific to the application program 6 is not created.
Is written in the system file 5. Also, the installation program 7 itself is stored on the hard disk C
After the installation is completed, the application program 6 is merely copied onto the hard disk C as shown in FIG. Further, by installing the application program 6, two information, Ins = ON and XYZ = PQR, are written into the system file 5 as shown in FIG.

Next, a method of uninstalling the application program 1 from the state where the two application programs are installed will be described. When the application program 1 is started, operations such as reading from the scanner or printing out can be performed. However, it is also possible to select an uninstall command from the application program 1. When the uninstall command is selected on the application program 1, the install program 3 copied on the hard disk C together with the application program 1 is started (step S1), and the process proceeds to the uninstall process (step S2; YES).

First, the application program 1 is deleted from the hard disk C (step S7), and then the reference file 8 is restored to restore the system file 5 to the state before the application program 1 was installed.
Is read (step S8). At this time, only the information of Ins = OFF is written in the reference file 8 as shown in FIG. 3C, and based on this information, Ins of the system file is rewritten from ON to OFF to restore the system file 5. Is performed (step S9). As described above, since only Ins, which is unique information related to the application program 1 to be uninstalled using the reference file 8, is operated, the contents of the system file 5 after the uninstallation of the application program 1 are as shown in FIG. ), And XYZ, which is information unique to the application program 6, remains valid.

Then, finally, the reference file 8 is deleted from the hard disk C (step S10), and the uninstall processing is terminated. As described above, according to the present invention, when uninstalling an application program, only information unique to the application program to be uninstalled is deleted without deleting information necessary for other application programs in the system file. It can be restored to the state before installation.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Note that description of common parts with the first embodiment will be omitted.

In the above embodiment, an example was described in which the uninstall program was included in the install program. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The uninstall program and the install program may be stored separately on a floppy disk, and the install program and the application program may be copied onto the hard disk at the time of installation. In this case, the uninstallation program may be executed from a floppy disk without being copied.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the floppy disk is used as the information recording medium has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
An information recording medium such as a ROM may be used.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, only the case where the unique information is changed to the system file at the time of installation has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. It can handle the case of deletion. In these cases, not only the type of information but also the type of processing such as addition or deletion may be written in the reference file.

In the above embodiment, the reference file is deleted last. However, since the reference file itself is extremely small, the reference file may be left. However, by deleting the reference file as in the above embodiment, the free space of the storage means such as a hard disk can be increased and used effectively.

[0040]

According to the method for uninstalling an application program according to the first aspect of the present invention, the contents of the unique information before the installation of the application program are written into the reference file, and at the time of uninstallation, the information written into the reference file is written. Since the unique information is read and the content of the read unique information is written to the system file, it is possible to reliably restore the content of the unique information in the system file to a state before the application program is installed. Since information that can be operated at this time is only the unique information, information necessary for other application programs can be effectively kept.

According to the application program uninstalling method of the present invention, the content of the unique information read from the reference file is written in the system file as described above, so that the system file is stored before the installation. After restoring the state, the reference file is deleted from the storage medium, so that the free space of the storage medium can be increased, and the recording medium can be used effectively.

According to the application program uninstalling method of the third aspect, even if at least either the operation of adding or deleting the specific information or the change of the content of the specific information is performed, the addition or deletion of the specific information is performed. Since the content of the unique information before being deleted or changed is written in the reference file, the system file can be more reliably restored to the state before the installation.

According to the information recording medium of the fourth aspect,
By causing the computer to read the information recording medium, an uninstallation program of the application program is started on the computer, and the content of the unique information before the installation of the application program is written in a reference file. The unique information written in the application file is read and the content of the read unique information is written in the system file, so that the content of the unique information in the system file is installed in the application program. The previous state can be reliably restored, and the information operated at this time is only the unique information, so that the information necessary for other application programs can be effectively kept.

According to the information recording medium of the fifth aspect,
By causing the computer to read the information recording medium, an uninstallation program of an application program is started on the computer, and the content of the unique information read from the reference file as described above is written in the system file. After restoring the system file to the state before the installation, the reference file is deleted from the storage medium, so that the free space of the storage medium can be increased and the storage medium can be used effectively. it can.

According to the information recording medium of claim 6,
By causing the computer to read the information recording medium, an uninstallation program of the application program is started on the computer, and at least any operation of adding or deleting the specific information or changing the content of the specific information is performed. Even if
Since the content of the unique information before the addition, deletion, or change is written in the reference file, the system file can be reliably restored to the state before the installation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of software of an image image forming system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an installation and uninstallation method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing contents of a system file and a reference file when installation and uninstallation are executed in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing contents of a system file and a backup file when conventional installation and uninstallation are executed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Application program 2 ... Driver program 3 ... Installation program 4 ... OS 5 ... System file 6 ... Application program 7 ... Installation program 8 ... Reference file

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A method for uninstalling an application program in which unique information is operated on a system file at the time of installation, wherein a reference file is created on a storage medium having a file storage function when the application program is installed. Writing the content of the unique information in the system file before the operation on the unique information for the application program to the reference file; and Deleting a file from the storage medium, reading the content of the unique information written in the reference file at the time of uninstalling, and reading the content of the unique information Uninstalling the application program, comprising the the steps of restoring the state before the installation the contents of the system files by writing to the system file. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of deleting the reference file from the storage medium after restoring the contents of the system file to the state before the installation. Installation method. 3. The operation of the unique information on the system file includes at least addition or deletion of the unique information or change of the content of the unique information. How to uninstall the application program described in. 4. A computer-readable information recording medium in which an uninstallation program for an application program whose unique information is operated on a system file at the time of installation is recorded on a computer-readable storage medium having a file storage function. Means for creating a reference file at the time of installation of the application program, means for writing the content of the unique information in the system file before the operation on the unique information for the application program to the reference file Means for deleting a file of the application program from the storage medium when the application program is uninstalled, and writing the reference file at the time of the uninstallation. Means for reading the content of the unique information that has been read, and means for restoring the content of the system file to the state before the installation by writing the content of the read unique information to the system file. Recording medium for recording a program for recording. 5. A program for causing a computer to function as means for deleting the reference file from the storage medium after restoring the contents of the system file to the state before the installation, and further recording the program. The information recording medium according to claim 4. 6. A means for writing the content of the unique information in the system file to the reference file before the operation of the information unique to the application program, wherein at least the unique information is added or deleted. 6. The information recording medium according to claim 4, further comprising means for writing the content before or before the content of the unique information is changed in the reference file.