WiX v5: Hide/Unhide hotfixes in control panel

[vkpabba]

Question

I have a base setup (RTM) followed by three sequential hotfixes: HF1, HF2, and HF3. After installing HF3, only RTM and HF3 are visible in "Programs and Features" (Control Panel), while HF1 and HF2 are hidden. I’m hiding HF1 and HF2 by setting their SystemComponent registry value to 1 using a custom action scheduled before InstallFinalize.

This works as expected during installation. However, the issue occurs when I uninstall HF3 — both HF1 and HF2 become visible again in the Control Panel. On investigation, I noticed that although the SystemComponent value was correctly set to 0 via custom action, it gets deleted later. As a result, the previously hidden entries for HF1 and HF2 reappear, which is not desired.

How can I ensure that HF1 and HF2 remain hidden even after HF3 is uninstalled? Is there a way to prevent the deletion of the SystemComponent registry value during uninstall?

Note: I am using WiX v5
<CustomAction Id="HideHotFixes"
Execute="" -> Tried with immediate, commit and deferred type of custom actions
DllEntry="HideandUnhideHotFixes"
Impersonate="no"
BinaryRef="MBACAs" />

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[vkpabba]

I have added 2 keys to test the behavior SystemComponent and VkpabbaSystemComponent (assigning the same value)
SystemComponent is deleted while VkpabbaSystemComponent is still present even after hf3 uninstall

[robmen]

You'll probably need to dig through a verbose log file for all the various installs/uninstalls to see what is getting re-run and messing up the registry key you're trying to set. Patches create lots of complexities. 😄