Windows Installer is trying to install a program I wish it woouldn't

  • Thread starter Thread starter ALEXB
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ALEXB

Every time I click on an icon for "Internet Explorer" and a number of other
icons like "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer" or "Control Panel" this
window pops up:

"Windows Installer"

"The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is
unavailable. Click OK to try again or enter an alternative path to a folder
containing the installation package 'AcroPro.msi' in the box below."

Now in the box below there are two options: (1) Adobe Acrobat 4.0: Disk 1
and (2) C:\Program files\Adobe\........

When I click Cancel and close the window I can work with any of the
applications as long as I want.

My system is Win2K Pro. I bought this very powerful Dell just 5 months ago.
It is top of the line.

I need to give you a bit of recent history. Everything worked fine until I
downloaded the damn Mozilla Firefox and ThunderBird. It messed up my
hotmail.com accounts and I decided to uninstall them. I did and realized
that their uninstall did not remove any of the their settings. Half of my
applications did not work. ShellExecute wouldn't work, etc.

At this point I realized that I failed to save the registry before the
Mozilla Install. I wish Mozilla with all it developers will burn in hell
but even that won't help me. Anyway, after some tinkering I was left with
the only radical solution: I went to the registry and removed everything
Mozilla related manually. ShellExecute was restored but some other things I
do not even remember what still did not work. I have two more DELL machines
purchased at the same time. I dumped the registry of one of them onto a
flash memory key and tried to export it into this computer. The export was
allegedly aborted but I found that references to many of software on the
other machine migrated to my sick computer. One of them is Adobe Acrobat Pro
7.0. And then the whole thing I described above started but the messages
were referring to Acrobat 7.0 and I had only generic 4.0 version which came
with the OS.

I just purchased a full version of Acrobat 6.0 Pro and decided to install it
on the "sick" machine to give it something to chew on. The install refused
to proceed and the error message was that I have "an active version of
Acrobat" on my machine. In fact I did not. Only the registry was full of
references. I ran reedit and manually changed all 7.0 to 4.0. It did not
help at all. I still cannot install Acrobat 6.0. It gives me the same error
message. I still get error messages when I click on My Computer.

I have another machine with no Acrobat 7.0, only 4.0 on it. I may try to
import its registry. Is there a better way to get it straight short of
uninstalling and reinstalling the whole OS.

Please help.
 
I think the the Windows Installer is popping up when you open IE etc because
you have a Browser Helper Object (BHO) for Adobe. This means a
toolbabr/toolbar button in laymans terms

Uninstall version 4 Acrobat/Distiller & Acrobat (Reader) 7, delete the Adobe
directory in APPLICATION DATA folder, delete the ADOBE directory in Program
Files

Another thing you will notice is that Acrobat leaves a MSI file & others in
the TEMP directory, but you will need to show all hidden files/folders
first. Clean the TEMP directory out & reboot.

You can now try installing again

What version of MS Office are you using with Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional?
The reason why I ask is because I bought this program & its incompatible
with MS Office 2003, but will work with MS Office XP. If you want Adobe
Acrobat to work with MS Office 2003 then you'll need version 7. This is
documented on the Adobe website, but not on the box (packaging).

Lastly. Isn't Mozilla Open Source? If so, that is why you won't get any help
there.

Crouchie1998
BA (HONS) MCP MCSE
 
Crouchie1998 said:
I think the the Windows Installer is popping up when you open IE etc because
you have a Browser Helper Object (BHO) for Adobe. This means a
toolbabr/toolbar button in laymans terms

Uninstall version 4 Acrobat/Distiller & Acrobat (Reader) 7, delete the Adobe
directory in APPLICATION DATA folder, delete the ADOBE directory in Program
Files

Another thing you will notice is that Acrobat leaves a MSI file & others in
the TEMP directory, but you will need to show all hidden files/folders
first. Clean the TEMP directory out & reboot.

This is very helpful. I will follow. Thanks.
You can now try installing again

What version of MS Office are you using with Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional?

I haven't installed Acrobat 6 Pro on any of my machines yet (just tried!)
but on one of them Acrobat 7 Pro works with Works 2001, therefore it must be
MS Office 2001. I purchased advanced Dells but decided to skimp on some
software since my usage of MS Office has always been rudimentary: typing a
few letters a week, making address labels and business cards. I had an
Office 2001 from a previous purchase. Acrobat 7 seemed to work with Office
2001 just fine. I've converted a few files to .pdf format.
The reason why I ask is because I bought this program & its incompatible
with MS Office 2003, but will work with MS Office XP. If you want Adobe
Acrobat to work with MS Office 2003 then you'll need version 7. This is
documented on the Adobe website, but not on the box (packaging).

Lastly. Isn't Mozilla Open Source? If so, that is why you won't get any help
there.

Thanks for the answer. Mozilla is Open Source of sorts meaning that you
download it for free but any troubleshooting costs you $40 per phone call
and there is no way to contact them by email like other developers. I think
they intentionally build in elements that will cause you trouble if you want
to get rid of it. It might sound like paranoia but if I were a developer
distributing a product to the public I would have taken care of removing any
traces of it if a person decided to uninstall it. It is elementary. They
know which registers they changed and the uninstall should use the same code
simply reversing the values or deleting the keys. My computer was completely
infested with Mozilla references not to mention their file directories after
the uninstall. They changed all shell values and the uninstall did not
reverse them.

I want to mention that for a newbie who just started with email and Internet
who downloads a Mozilla it might work just fine. I mean it does work
trafficking email and web pages but if you have an msn or hotmail account
there is no way you can attach them to it. Mozilla is a grandchild of
Netscape and there is a lot of bad blood between them and MS. It is a cold
war in cyber space.
 
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