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Cannot Delete File


7 replies to this topic

Prancer

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Posted 24 June 2004 - 05:19

I recently stopped using Earthlink and uninstalled the program. Now when I bootup a window appears on my Desktop indicating that "Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker.msi" is trying to be installed by Windows Installer! This can't happen because the file is no longer on my computer. It then takes awhile to get rid of the various other associated windows that appear. How can I get rid of this pest? My OS is WinXP pro.

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 24 June 2004 - 06:34

Please have a look at your Windows event log. This might reveal who is trying to repair that program and why.
Did you uninstall this program through control panel?

Prancer

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Posted 24 June 2004 - 23:17

Stefan,

Thanks for your reply. I'm new to this forum so excuse the message duplication. Yes, I uninstalled Earthlink using the Control Panel. What few files weren't removed, I deleted manually. For some reason Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker.msi refused to quit! I took a look at the voluminous Windows Viewer but was unable to find any clue to the maverick
program. So, any other suggestions on how to eliminate it?

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 25 June 2004 - 14:24

Would you be able to find a copy of this .msi file? In this case you could perfom an uninstall by running
msiexec.exe /x C:\path\to\the.msi

Otherwise you would have to find out the product code GUID of this .msi and run
msiexec.exe /x {product code GUID}

The product code should be mentioned in the event log entry. For information about reading the event log please see article "Every time I launch my application, Windows Installer performs an installation. How can I determine the cause of the on-demand installation?" at http://www.microsoft...nt/msi_faq.mspx

Prancer

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Posted 26 June 2004 - 06:17

Hello Again Stefan,

I appreciate all the information you gave me, but none of it seems to help my problem! The "problem" starts when a window pops-up on it's own entitled Eartlink Pop-Up Blocker and announces that the feature you are trying to use is on a cd-rom or other removable disk that is not available. There are 3 choices: "OK", "Cancel" & "Browse" plus another small window labeled "Use features from 1". If I click "Cancel" a new window appears entitled "Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker" : Error 1706. No valid source could be found for product Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker. The Windows installer cannot continue.
This is the only information I have about this annoyance. How can I get rid of it??

Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 26 June 2004 - 11:26

It looks like you installed this pop up blocker using that .msi file some time ago. The blocker software appears to be damaged, possibly because you attempted to delete it manually. But it was not fully uninstalled, so the operating system still knows about it.
That pop up window seems to trigger the pop up blocker software which is still registered on your computer. Now the operating system notices that some files of the blocker software are missing and tries to repair it. Therefore it requests the installation CD. If you click Cancel the repair fails, so the blocker software remains in its damaged state.

If you want to get rid of the blocker software you have to properly uninstall it. For this you either need the .msi package, or you need to find out the product code.

If that's not viable then as a last resort you can use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to unregister the blocker software from your computer, see http://support.micro...com?kbid=290301

Glytzhkof

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Posted 26 June 2004 - 14:13

Just for reference (don't do what I suggest here unless you really need to. Stefan's advice above is much better. This is the absolute last resort):

There is a super-hidden folder %WINDIR%\Installer (normally resolves to C:\WINDOWS\Installer) which will contain cached MSI databases for software installed on your system. If you did not successfully uninstall the software, or if the MSI file was in use during uninstall it will still be here. All files in this folder has a random name. Click the first file, look in the statusbar of Windows Explorer and you should see the internal name of the MSI file. When you see the name of the software you try to get rid of, right click the file and select Uninstall.

To see super hidden folders you need to uncheck the "hide operating system files" in the Windows Explorer options.
Regards
-Stein Åsmul

Prancer

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Posted 26 June 2004 - 23:28

Stefan & Glytzhkof,

Thank you, thank you. The suggestion about using Windows Installer CleanUp Utility did the job!! When I logged on to the program I not only found Earthlink Pop-Up but several other old Earthlink files listed. What an insidious program, but good old CleanUp Utility finally nailed 'em. Again, I certainly appreciate your professional help.