Windows Installer question

[Guest]

There's an application that I'm trying to install that uses the .msi
installer. I'm using Windows XP Pro.

A consistent error the application's installer reports is:

"A later version of 'Bluetooth Software' is already installed on this
machine. The setup cannot continue."

Then the installer aborts the setup.

The manufacturer has told me "We don't know, reinstall Windows". Which to me
indicates they don't realize it's from the installer, not their software.

It seems obvious to me that the version information would be installed in a
registry key. The problem is that I have no idea how to track down the key
that it would be located in.

Can anyone tell me how to track down the key the installer would look in for
the version number for this application?

Any help appreciated!

 

[Ghostrider]

There's an application that I'm trying to install that uses the .msi
installer. I'm using Windows XP Pro.

A consistent error the application's installer reports is:

"A later version of 'Bluetooth Software' is already installed on this
machine. The setup cannot continue."

Then the installer aborts the setup.

The manufacturer has told me "We don't know, reinstall Windows". Which to me
indicates they don't realize it's from the installer, not their software.

It seems obvious to me that the version information would be installed in a
registry key. The problem is that I have no idea how to track down the key
that it would be located in.

Can anyone tell me how to track down the key the installer would look in for
the version number for this application?

Any help appreciated!

Yes, the information is in the Registry, and probably in several different
places as well as redundantly. What one might realistically try to do is
to go into the Add/Remove applet and uninstall the "Bluetooth Software"
before installing this particular application. BTW, what is it and why is
it trying to re-install Bluetooth if it is already in the computer? If
this is the case, there might be an optional or custom install route
that bypasses this step in the setup of this particular application.

 

[Guest]

Hello,

The original problem happened because I was foolish enough to run a
"registry cleaner". That's not going to happen again.

I uninstalled with the Add/Remove applet as well as the Anycom manual
removal instructions.

The application software is from Anycom for a USB dongle.

How does one track where the installer is looking for the version number?

 

[Guest]

There isn't any software that I'm aware of that can track changes to the
registry for you, although I admit that I haven't looked for one. I know that
you can track for programs asking for permission to modify the registry but
I'm not sure if you can know exactly what. I haven't messed with the code
side of acessing the registry much as there's usually little need from the
program side.

However, regedit has a search tool built in. Search for the name of the
driver, the name of teh company making the driver, do some research into the
driver via the device manager and search for that. Heck, search for the
version code. I agree that removing the software from the Add/Remove programs
would more than likely fix the registry problem. I would also manually look
in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/"name of folder in Program Files" as thats
usually the first place that people store info on their programs.

And I had a similar experience with a registry cleaner a few years back.
Fortunately I actually made a backup for once (because the registry scared
me), but I only manually edit the registry now and use backups when I do so.

As for it acutally being in the registry, version info can be stored
directly into the exe file using XML parsing files at compile time and this
can be easily accessed in the properties pane and through software. It
doesn't have to be in the registry.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

There are lots of apps that track changes to the Registry and the file
system. I use RegSnap. But I don't think anything except the programmer who
wrote it (or someone who looks into its guts) is going to know where the app
is looking for this or that. OP should ask that question, specifically, of
the manufacturer. If the manufacturer doesn't help, I'd dump the damned
thing altogether and tell the manufacturer that not only do I think their
support sucks, but I'm going to tell a lot of people about it, starting with
this newsgroup.

 

[Guest]

I know it's a tad odd to answer your own question, but I've solved the
problem.

What I wanted to do was to be able to reinstall the software, which was
being thwarted by the version check.

I stumbled onto the ability to install the .msi directly via right click in
Windows Explorer. When I did this, it seemed to ignore any version problem
and installed without difficulty.

It's all working now, but I have no intention of telling the manufacturer
anything except that it's working without their help. Their support is
certainly less than I care for in the future! It would have been near
impossible to put in another Bluetooth dongle unless it used something
besides Widcom or Broadcom based software.

I'll look into Regsnap and see what that's like just in case I need it one
day!

Thank you all for all your help, it got me to thinking!

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Good on ya. Glad you solved it. In fact, I'll try to remember it, though I
suspect I won't. Rampant CRS, dontcha know.