Help w/uninstalling a corrupt, uninstallable Microsoft application

[NigelBirch]

ave XP Media Edition sp2. Had programs installed by Dell before delivery of
computer. Have a Resource Disk but no individual application disks for this
particular pre-installed application. The application is Microsoft Plus!
Digital Media Edition, which was included with XP Media Edition and which
Microsoft no longer supports (since 2004). The application became corrupted
secondary to a virus and rootkit infestation, and I can no longer open the
programs individual applications (e.g. audio, photostory, etc.). There is no
UNINSTALL, and it does not appear in Add/Remove. I found an Installation
file for it online and downloaded it and attempted to use it to uninstall it.
I opened the installer, and it did not give me an uninstall option, only an
install option. So I attempted to reinstall Plus! so that I could uninstall
it and then reinstall it to correct the corrupted files. (Still following
me?) However, when I went to install it, it asked for a Product Code! Argh!

What to do!?!? As stated, this application came pre-installed from Dell.
Where is the Product Code, on the Resource CD Dell included for OS
reinstallation???
(Btw, Dell was of no help on this.)

My question is this: Can this software application be retrieved from the
Resource Disc that came with my computer? Is there a way to boot up and
install ONLY this application from this CD or from a recovery CD? I do not
want/need to reinstall my OS, I only want to reinstall Microsoft Plus!
Digital Media Edition. If I can, in fact, install this program from one of
these CDs, is the product key included on the disc? I certainly do not want
to do a re-install it and then end up with the same message, asking me for a
Product Key. All Dell ever included with my PC with pre-bundled software was
a Resource CD (which is designated to be used only for OS re-installation)
and a Files & Utilities disc with my PC (and, oh, yes, a Sonic My DVD LE and
WIN OFFICE 2000 disc). No Microsoft Plus! Media Edition disc or Product Key.

Thank you to anyone who might be able to help me. I've been searching for
answers now for over two weeks via Dell, the Internet, and many dead or
useless links from MS on this program and what to do. I'm about tapped out.

Thank you,

Nigel

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

ave XP Media Edition sp2. Had programs installed by Dell before
delivery of computer. Have a Resource Disk but no individual
application disks for this particular pre-installed application. The
application is Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition, which was
included with XP Media Edition and which Microsoft no longer supports
(since 2004). The application became corrupted secondary to a virus
and rootkit infestation, and I can no longer open the programs
individual applications (e.g. audio, photostory, etc.). There is no
UNINSTALL, and it does not appear in Add/Remove. I found an
Installation file for it online and downloaded it and attempted to
use it to uninstall it. I opened the installer, and it did not give
me an uninstall option, only an install option. So I attempted to
reinstall Plus! so that I could uninstall it and then reinstall it to
correct the corrupted files. (Still following me?) However, when I
went to install it, it asked for a Product Code! Argh!

What to do!?!? As stated, this application came pre-installed from
Dell. Where is the Product Code, on the Resource CD Dell included for
OS reinstallation???
(Btw, Dell was of no help on this.)

My question is this: Can this software application be retrieved from
the Resource Disc that came with my computer? Is there a way to boot
up and install ONLY this application from this CD or from a recovery
CD? I do not want/need to reinstall my OS, I only want to reinstall
Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition. If I can, in fact, install
this program from one of these CDs, is the product key included on
the disc? I certainly do not want to do a re-install it and then end
up with the same message, asking me for a Product Key. All Dell ever
included with my PC with pre-bundled software was a Resource CD
(which is designated to be used only for OS re-installation) and a
Files & Utilities disc with my PC (and, oh, yes, a Sonic My DVD LE
and WIN OFFICE 2000 disc). No Microsoft Plus! Media Edition disc or
Product Key.

Thank you to anyone who might be able to help me. I've been
searching for answers now for over two weeks via Dell, the Internet,
and many dead or useless links from MS on this program and what to
do. I'm about tapped out.

Thank you,

Nigel

I'm not sure what to say about Plus - but did you call Dell on the phone and
see if you could escalate the call if you got no joy? Even if the PC is out
of warranty they'll usually still provide phone support.

If you're a brave soul, you could go through the registry to remove traces
of the offending programs. Of course, you'd do a full backup first.

 

[olfart]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

I'm not sure what to say about Plus - but did you call Dell on the phone
and see if you could escalate the call if you got no joy? Even if the PC
is out of warranty they'll usually still provide phone support.

If you're a brave soul, you could go through the registry to remove traces
of the offending programs. Of course, you'd do a full backup first.

did you open and view the contents of the CD's. The program may be on one of
them and you could try running the .exe for the program from there

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

did you open and view the contents of the CD's. The program may be on
one of them and you could try running the .exe for the program from
there

No, but I'm not the OP. I think you meant to reply to him & not me

 

[NigelBirch]

I'm not sure what to say about Plus - but did you call Dell on the phone and
see if you could escalate the call if you got no joy? Even if the PC is out
of warranty they'll usually still provide phone support.

If you're a brave soul, you could go through the registry to remove traces
of the offending programs. Of course, you'd do a full backup first.

Thank you to those who are trying to help me out for the quick answers of
which I was NOT notified. I came back here and had to hunt to try to find my
original post.

Okay, Dell was of no help. Out of warranty, and no help with software. It
is not only my Dell backup discs (and even if it were, I think I would run
into the 'no product key' issue). I don't know if the install file or log is
corrupt or what, but, as stated, this program does not appear in Add/Remove;
only the installation app I downloaded from MS appear there. As stated, this
installation application works, but I am not able to use it because it asks
for a product key which I do not have.

Here's what happens: If I click on any of the several components in this
large program (MS Plus! Digital Media Edition), I get an error saying that
"some of the program files necessary are missing/corrupt; please reinstall
and try again.' So, the bottom line is that MS Plus! Digital Media Edition
is messed up, and I cannot reinstall nor uninstall it.

I am wondering if any of the Uninstall apps available (like Windows
Installer Cleanup or Revo or whatever it's called) might work. I'm assuming
from what I've read that your program still has to appear in Add/Remove, or
these types of applications will not work.

I'm afraid that the only option here is to remove entries from the registry.
Is there some way to do a search for these entries? I admit I'm inept at
making changes to the registry. Under what keys would I look, and would I be
removing the entries from the right side of the registry panel only, or both
sides?

Thank you for any continued help.

Nigel

 

[NigelBirch]

Okay, all, you can move on to help others. I found somewhere in my perusing
of the forums here, a post by someone suggesting to use a program called
Revo. I did, and it worked! It even took out 30 or more registry entries
related to this program, so all traces of it are gone, gone, gone! I'm a
happy camper.

I hope anyone reading this who is having the same or similar problems will
do a search for Revo. It's quickly found and can be downloaded from
downloads.com as well. It has a clear and straight-forward interface, and
it's free!

Thank you again to those who tried to help.

Best regards,

Nigel

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

I'm not sure what to say about Plus - but did you call Dell on the phone
and see if you could escalate the call if you got no joy? Even if the PC
is out of warranty they'll usually still provide phone support.

If you're a brave soul, you could go through the registry to remove traces
of the offending programs. Of course, you'd do a full backup first.

did you open and view the contents of the CD's. The program may be on one of
them and you could try running the .exe for the program from there

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Thank you to those who are trying to help me out for the quick
answers of which I was NOT notified. I came back here and had to
hunt to try to find my original post.

Glad you got your problem resolved.

OT, but try using a news client, such as Forte Agent, Thunderbird, or even
Outlook Express, rather than the pretty clunky web interface to the
newsgroups. It's a lot easier to do nearly everything that way. You can mark
messages to be watched, filter the views so you can see replies to your
posts easily, and search.

The Microsoft public news server is msnews.microsoft.com and you can
subscribe to as many groups as you like; no authentication is required.

The following is from a post by MVP Malke ...

-------------------------------------------------------
Here's information on Usenet and using a newsreader:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page3.html#12-09-02 - a brief
explanation of newsgroups
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlo...ssnewreader.htm
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...wto/default.asp
- Set Up Newsreader

http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

http://aumha.org/nntp.htm - list of MS newsgroups
microsoft.public.test.here - MS group to test if your newsreader is
working properly
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm - how to munge email address
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting vs.
crossposting

Some newsreaders for Windows
http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php - for Forte
http://www.mozilla.org (Thunderbird does newsgroups)
http://gravity.tbates.org/

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