Windows Installer weirdness

[Bob Davis]

OS: WinXP Pro, all updates applied
No viruses reported by NAV, all updates applied

I use a prog called The Rename (hereafter called TR) that allows batch
renaming files, but lately I'm getting some weird behavior that ties in to
Windows Installer (hearafter called WI). Basically, this is what happens
when I try to load The Rename from either Windows Explorer or a desktop
icon:

At first, I received a WI window that said the following:

"The feature you are tyring to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk
that is not available.
Insert the 'Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage' disk and click
OK."

In the "Use feature from:" box, there is one option: "Microsoft Office XP
Professional with FrontPage"
This prog has absolutely nothing to do with Office XP, and I only have Word
and Frontpage installed on this system at this time.

If I put the Office XP disk in the CD drive, I get another WI window that
says simply "Preparing to install..." and does nothing for several minutes,
and after that the program (TR) appears and runs as normal and the WI window
disappears. If I click on "cancel" while the WI window is present, it says
"canceling..." and sits there for a minute or two, then reverts to the
"Preparing..." window again. The only way to get rid of this window at this
time without waiting is to End Task.

For the past several hours of troubleshooting, this first window asking for
the CD has not reappeared, but I usually get the second window
("Preparing..."). After I End Task on this, if I try to run TR again for
the next five or six times, the Windows Installer window flashes very
quickly for several seconds and The Rename loads as normal. After that I
get the "Preparing..." window again.

One more interesting tidbit: When the WI window is present, Taskmgr
Applications shows both WI and TR running, even though TR is not visible.
When I End Task on WI, both WI and TR disappear from the Taskmgr list.

What is going on here? I uninstalled The Rename, purged all references to
it from the registry, deleted all files in its Program Files folder, and the
problem continues. I'm baffled.

 

[cimex]

Does this help? From MSKB article 193006:

You may receive the following message:

"The feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk
that is not available.

Insert the 'Microsoft Office XP' disk and click OK. "

If you click OK without inserting the Office CD-ROM, you receive the
following error message:

The path 'Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage' cannot be found.
Verify that you have access to this location and try again, or try to find
the installation package 'PROPLUS.MSI' in a folder from which you can
install the product Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage.
To allow the Office program to correctly configure itself, place the Office
CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, and then click OK to the error message. Click OK
in the dialog box that is requesting the Office CD-ROM.

 

[davetest]

OS: WinXP Pro, all updates applied
No viruses reported by NAV, all updates applied

I use a prog called The Rename (hereafter called TR) that allows batch
renaming files, but lately I'm getting some weird behavior that ties in to
Windows Installer (hearafter called WI). Basically, this is what happens
when I try to load The Rename from either Windows Explorer or a desktop
icon:

At first, I received a WI window that said the following:

"The feature you are tyring to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk
that is not available.
Insert the 'Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage' disk and click
OK."

In the "Use feature from:" box, there is one option: "Microsoft Office XP
Professional with FrontPage"
This prog has absolutely nothing to do with Office XP, and I only have Word
and Frontpage installed on this system at this time.

If I put the Office XP disk in the CD drive, I get another WI window that
says simply "Preparing to install..." and does nothing for several minutes,
and after that the program (TR) appears and runs as normal and the WI window
disappears. If I click on "cancel" while the WI window is present, it says
"canceling..." and sits there for a minute or two, then reverts to the
"Preparing..." window again. The only way to get rid of this window at this
time without waiting is to End Task.

For the past several hours of troubleshooting, this first window asking for
the CD has not reappeared, but I usually get the second window
("Preparing..."). After I End Task on this, if I try to run TR again for
the next five or six times, the Windows Installer window flashes very
quickly for several seconds and The Rename loads as normal. After that I
get the "Preparing..." window again.

One more interesting tidbit: When the WI window is present, Taskmgr
Applications shows both WI and TR running, even though TR is not visible.
When I End Task on WI, both WI and TR disappear from the Taskmgr list.

What is going on here? I uninstalled The Rename, purged all references to
it from the registry, deleted all files in its Program Files folder, and the
problem continues. I'm baffled.

I had something very similar happen to me yesterday, also related to
WI. I clicked the Sh.cut for Stomp RecordMAxNow, and instead of the
CD burning app, I got a message from the WI telling me that the
product wasn't installed correctly and it needed but couldn't find the
installation *.MSI file to continue.
I was able to fix it by using add/remove programs - repair
and pointing to the aforementioned MSI file.

Later, while perusing the event viewer, there's a message that
implies that the system was looking for an Adobe PDF file that should
have been in the application install folder, but which I had removed
a few days previously in an attempt to clean up all pdf files from my
C: drive. Strange but true.

On the XP CD rom are some support tools, one of which is msicuu.exe
a cleanup file for apps that use the MSI services.
Dave

 

[Bob Davis]

Does this help? From MSKB article 193006:

You may receive the following message:

"The feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk
that is not available.

Insert the 'Microsoft Office XP' disk and click OK. "

If you click OK without inserting the Office CD-ROM, you receive the
following error message:

The path 'Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage' cannot be found.
Verify that you have access to this location and try again, or try to find
the installation package 'PROPLUS.MSI' in a folder from which you can
install the product Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage.
To allow the Office program to correctly configure itself, place the Office
CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, and then click OK to the error message. Click OK
in the dialog box that is requesting the Office CD-ROM.

I later discovered that the WI window showed up in Word and Frontpage as
well, and failing to find any info on the M$ site or with Google, I bailed
and restored from a recent Ghost clone. All is well now, and apparently
some registry entry or file was corrupted. Windows Restore did not work.

 

[Bob Davis]

I had something very similar happen to me yesterday, also related to
WI. I clicked the Sh.cut for Stomp RecordMAxNow, and instead of the
CD burning app, I got a message from the WI telling me that the
product wasn't installed correctly and it needed but couldn't find the
installation *.MSI file to continue.
I was able to fix it by using add/remove programs - repair
and pointing to the aforementioned MSI file.

I tried a complete uninstall of TR, purged any mention of its name in the
registry, and provided it with the MSI file it asked for from the Office XP
CD, but none of the above worked. I performed a disk clone with Ghost on
Saturday and restored it tonight, and now all is well. I assume a registry
entry had been corrupted. Thank heaven for backups.