No, it is not necessary to upgrade to 5.5 first.
(PA Bear, BTW, is NOT a Microsoft employee, nor am I)
Please read this:
Here is the definitive guide for IE 6 installation issues by
Jim Byrd, MS-MVP :
" This is my standard "spiel" about install problems such as yours.
Please read it carefully. You may want to print it out.
In any of these install fixes, to quote Steve Cochran, "It is essential
that no "interfering" software be running during the install and
subsequent reboot. This is particularly true of antiviral software.
Most or many of the corrupt installs involve installations while AV or
other software is loaded and these prevent the ability of the setup
process to upgrade dlls, and consequently installations fail or are
incomplete." When you get to the point of doing the install in any of
the following fixes, "Go to Start | Run and type msconfig. Then disable
all startup items." Another program which can be used for this purpose
is EndItAll2, available here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,,s=1478&a=13909,00.asp In
addition, I would suggest disabling ALL Norton software, particularly
System Doctor and/or the Protected Recycle Bin, if present. See here
for some general help:
Q256219 - OLEXP: How to Manually Uninstall and Reinstall Outlook Express
5:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q256/2/19.asp
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318378
See these two Microsoft articles for lists of products known to
interfere with installations:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;q241234 and
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q241783.
Also, check here to get the latest version of the Windows Installer
appropriate for your OS:
for Windows 95, 98, and Me:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32831
for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=32832
See for more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q305496
In all cases, I assume that you will be using ie6setup.exe in the
c:\%SystemRoot%\Windows Update Setup Files for any re-install. If your
OS is NT, then you MUST be logged on as Administrator both to install
and for the first reboot for any of the following fixes. Based on my
own experience, I believe this is also a requirement for Win2k, but MS
does not say it's required in that case in the ReadMe. However, in
Q293907 the following does appear: "You must have administrative
privileges to install and uninstall Internet Explorer 6 in Windows NT
and Windows 2000. This includes having administrative privileges the
first time you start your computer after you install or uninstall
Internet Explorer 6."
There are three things you might want to check:
Fix # 1: Try running ie6setup in Safe Mode. This was suggested by
Microsoft Support to one correspondent and worked for him after he had
tried the fixes described below. If it doesn't for you then try the
following.
Fix # 2: First, make sure in Windows Explorer/Tools/FolderOptions/View
that you show hidden and system files and show extensions.
Look in your c:\windows\inf folder and see if you find any files named
oemxx.inf which have a length of 0 (zero), where the xx can be any
number. There could be potentially many thousands. If you do, you need
to erase these. To do this, first select the c:\windows\inf folder,
then hit Search. In the Search pane on the left, enter oem*.inf and
down at the bottom click Size and At Most and 1 (one). Then do Search.
When it finishes, you should have all of the zero length oemxx.inf files
listed in the right pane along with possibly some of size 1K. Do CNTL A
to select all of them. Now hold down CNTL while you click on
(de-select) all of those at the top that are 1K, so the only the 0K size
files are left selected. Now hold down SHIFT and click DELETE to delete
the zero length oemxx.inf files without sending them to the Recycle Bin.
It will take some time if you've a lot of these files, so be patient.
You'll know when it's done. Symantec's System Doctor is the usual
culprit, but other programs can also cause this if they're running when
you do an install, particularly an install of system software, so be
sure to disable any such whenever you do an install.
Now for both Fix#2 and Fix#3 re-start your computer into DOS using a
boot floppy if necessary and run Scandisk C:, fixing any errors. If
you're not NT or Win2k, also run Scanreg /fix. Re-boot to Windows Safe
mode and defrag your computer (which will also probably take a little
time), and try your install again from Safe mode.. If it works, fine.
Fix # 3: If not, or if you didn't have such zero length oemxx.inf type
files to start with, try the following. Find the c:\program
files\internet explorer\uninstall information folder (It may be named
something slightly different depending on your operating system, for
example, just Uninstall in WinME.) It probably will be hidden, and you
will have to un-hid it. Right click on the folder, select properties,
then un-tick the Hidden attribute. (If you don't have this folder, then
create an empty one named: c:\program files\internet explorer\uninstall
information - now try your install again in Safe mode, re-selecting all
components, even those already bolded. See below.)
Now create a new empty folder and call it something like "IE Delete
Backup". Move the contents of the \uninstall information folder to the
new folder you created. (Just the contents - leave the old folder
there.) Now try the install again from the start in Safe mode,
re-selecting all components, even those already bolded, that you want
using the Advanced option, and see if this works. It has in many, many
cases, but not all. If it doesn't, you can just restore the files you
saved in "IE Delete Backup". Let us know how you make out, so that if
this doesn't help, perhaps someone else can suggest something else for
you.
Regards. Jim Byrd "
