[moved] Prevent application uninstall

[heuven]

Hi,

is there a way to prevent an end user to remove an application from the phone? For a 3rd party application there is always a menu item "Remove" which allows you to remove an application from the phone. For a ROM based application this "Remove" menu item does not exist. How can I achieve a similar behaviour for a 3rd party application?

So basically I am looking for a way to protect an application from being uninstalled. Uninstalling should only be possible by remote device management and not by the end user ...

This feature is useful within a managed app environment like within an enterprise setting to control which apps are installed on the phones.

BR,

Rene

[symbianyucca]

you could maybe search for the older thread on the topic. This has been discussed plenty of times, and basically one supposedly working way is to run exe on uninstallatio time that kills the installer.

[petrib]

And even such a hack that kills the installer can be circumvented by reformatting/reflashing the phone. The only way to truly prevent uninstallation is to have the manufacturer include the app in the firmware (ROM image).

[heuven]

Let's exclude the event of reformatting the phone - that's an unlikely action of the end user (as he will also loose contacts, etc). I just am searching for a way to have an experience for managed phone apps environment similar to having managed apps environment for PCs. I am not yet convinced. Will search in Symbian Foundation source code to see what options are available.

BR,

Rene

[petrib]

Even end users nowdays update their phone firmware and many also reset/reformat their phones (and some even know how to back up and restore their data).

Nokia used to have the Device Management tool/product for enterprises/companies for managing device configurations/application installations centrally. All phone models were not supported, and as far as I know, the product is more or less in "maintenance mode" nowadays.

[heuven]

Hi,

the functionality which I seem to be looking for seems to be existing. There exists a Symbian application called Guardian: see http://www.symbian-toys.com/guardian.aspx. It features:

- Uninstall Protection -

This feature protects the system from unauthorized uninstallation. The program is not visible among the installed programs; to be uninstalled, a specific procedure is required, which may be accessed from the program only.

- Hard Reset Protection -

Modern mobile devices are equipped with a procedure (hard-reset) which allows to restore default settings (removing every installed software). Similar antitheft software programs may be blocked by using this procedure. Guardian features an advanced shadow copy system; in 90% of cases the program is not deleted after a hard-reset.

So which APIs have been used here to make the application invisible in the list of installed programs?

BR,

Rene

[wizard_hu_]

So which APIs have been used here to make the application invisible in the list of installed programs?

It probably deletes the uninstaller stub (you can also find them in USB mass storage mode, for applications installed to drive e: of course).

The 90% blah-blah estimation is probably nonsense.